2017 Wimbledon – Gentlemen’s Final Preview

2017 WIMBLEDON

Day 13 Men’s Preview

Sunday 16 July

Singles Final

 

*All stats courtesy of Grand Slam Media

3 ROGER FEDERER (SUI) v NO. 7 MARIN CILIC (CRO)

This is the 131st staging of The Championships, which began in 1877. This is the 50th edition of The Championships in the Open Era, the first being in 1968 when Australia’s Rod Laver defeated compatriot Tony Roche in straight sets to win the title. 2017 Wimbledon is the 198th Grand Slam tournament of the Open Era.

 

Player	Country	Age	ATP Rank	Best Wimbledon Performance	Best Grand Slam Performance	Grass Court Titles
(3) Roger Federer	SUI	35	5	Winner  03-07, 09, 12	18 titles	16
(7) Marin Cilic	CRO	28	6	Final 17	Winner US Open 14	1

 

 

At stake for the finalists, in addition to the prestige of the Wimbledon title, is the following:

 

	Prize money (£)	ATP Ranking Points
Champion	2,200,000	2000
Finalist	1,100,000	1200

 

ATP Rankings update…

If he wins the title, Federer will rise to No. 3 when the new rankings are released on Monday 17 July – his highest ranking since August 2016. If Cilic wins the title, he will overtake Federer and rise to No. 5, breaking the world’s Top 5 for the first time in his career.

 

Projected rankings

Position	Player	ATP Ranking points
1.	Andy Murray	7750
2.	Rafael Nadal	7465
3.	Novak Djokovic	6325
4.	Stan Wawrinka	6140
5.	Roger Federer	Win: 6545/Loss: 5745
6.	Marin Cilic	Win: 5875/Loss: 5075
7.	Dominic Thiem	4030
8.	Kei Nishikori	3740
9.	Milos Raonic	3310
10.	Grigor Dimitrov	3160

 

 

 

 

 

No. 3 v No. 7

This is the first meeting between the No. 3 seed and the No. 7 seed in a Grand Slam final in the Open Era. The No. 7 seed has reached the final at a Grand Slam on just 4 previous occasions and never at Wimbledon. Jan Kodes is the only No. 7 seed to have won a Grand Slam title in the Open Era – at 1970 Roland Garros. The No. 3 seed has won the Wimbledon title on 5 occasions in the Open Era, most recently when No. 3 Federer defeated No. 4 Andy Murray in 2012. Stan Wawrinka was the last No. 3 seed to win a Grand Slam title at the 2016 US Open.

 

This year’s final is the 10th Wimbledon final in the Open Era to feature neither of the Top 2 seeds.

 

Wimbledon final debut

Cilic is looking to become the first player to win the Wimbledon title on his debut in the final here since Novak Djokovic won his first Wimbledon crown in 2011. In the Open Era, 14 men have won the Wimbledon title on their debut appearance in the final here. [NB Not including Rod Laver or John Newcombe who appeared in pre-Open Era finals here prior to winning their first Wimbledon titles in the Open Era.]

 

Federer has an 18-10 win-loss record in Grand Slam finals, while Cilic is appearing in the title match at a major for just the 2nd time – he defeated Kei Nishikori at the 2014 US Open in his only other Grand Slam final appearance to date.

 

Match-win leaders

Federer is bidding to win his 31st match of 2017 and move into joint-5th place on the list for most Tour-level match-wins this year. Cilic will equal Federer in 7th place on the list if he wins today.

 

Most Tour-level wins in 2017*

Rank	Player	Win-loss
1.	Rafael Nadal	46-7
2. 3. 4. 5=   7. 8=	Dominic Thiem Alexander Zverev Novak Djokovic Tomas Berdych David Goffin Roger Federer Roberto Bautista Agut Marin Cilic	38-16 36-13 32-8 31-14 31-12 30-2 29-12 29-13

*Through 2017 Wimbledon semifinals; Players in bold are still active at 2017 Wimbledon

 

Federer is looking to equal Cilic’s tally of grass court match-wins in 2017 and move into joint-1st place on the list for most Tour-level grass court match-wins this year.

 

Most grass court wins in 2017*

Rank	Player	Win-loss
1.	Marin Cilic	12-2
2=   4=	Roger Federer Gilles Muller Alexander Zverev Feliciano Lopez	11-1 11-2 9-3 9-2

*Through 2017 Wimbledon semifinals; Players in bold are still active at 2017 Wimbledon

 

Most titles in 2017

Federer is bidding to win his 5th title of 2017 and move clear of Rafael Nadal at the top of the list for most Tour-level titles won in 2017. Cilic, whose only title so far this year came at Istanbul, is aiming to win his 2nd Tour-level event of 2017 and join the list of 9 men who have won multiple Tour-level titles this season.

 

Most titles in 2017

Roger Federer              4          Australian Open, Indian Wells-1000, Miami-1000, Halle

Rafael Nadal                 4          Monte Carlo-1000, Barcelona, Madrid-1000, Roland Garros

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga        3          Rotterdam, Marseille, Lyon
Alexander Zverev          3          Montpellier, Munich, Rome-1000

Grigor Dimitrov             2          Brisbane, Sofia

Novak Djokovic             2          Doha, Eastbourne

Gilles Muller                  2          Sydney, ’s-Hertogenbosch

Lucas Pouille                2          Budapest, Stuttgart

Jack Sock                     2          Auckland, Delray Beach

 

 

Grand Slam throwback

If Federer wins today, it will mark the 5th time that Federer and Nadal have split the opening 3 Grand Slams of the year between them – but it will be the first time it has happened since 2010. On 3 of the previous 4 occasions where the pair have achieved the feat, one of Federer or Nadal has also gone on to win the US Open.

 

Federer and Nadal winning first 3 Grand Slams in a year

Year	Australian Open	Roland Garros	Wimbledon	US Open
2006	Federer (d. Baghdatis)	Nadal (d. Federer)	Federer (d. Nadal)	Federer (d. Roddick)
2007	Federer (d. Gonzalez)	Nadal (d. Federer)	Federer (d. Nadal)	Federer (d. Djokovic)
2009	Nadal (d. Federer)	Federer (d. Soderling)	Federer (d. Roddick)	Del Potro (d. Federer)
2010	Federer (d. Murray)	Nadal (d. Soderling)	Nadal (d. Berdych)	Nadal (d. Djokovic)
2017??	Federer (d. Nadal)	Nadal (d. Wawrinka)	Federer?? (v Cilic)	??

 

2017 Wimbledon match stats so far…

 

Player	Aces	Double Faults	1st serve %	Break points saved	Service games won	Games dropped
No. 3 Roger Federer	64	10	66	16 of 20	79 of 83	66
No. 7 Marin Cilic	130	17	62	14 of 24	99 of 109	91

 

Head-to-head: Federer leads 6-1 

2008     AMS Paris                    Hard (I)             R16      Federer             63 64

2011     Monte Carlo-1000          Clay (O)            R16      Federer             64 63

2011     US Open                      Hard (O)           R32      Federer            63 46 64 62

2012     Shanghai-1000              Hard (O)           QF        Federer             63 64

2014     Toronto-1000                 Hard (O)           R16      Federer             76(5) 67(3) 64

2014     US Open                      Hard (O)           SF        Cilic                 63 64 64

2016     Wimbledon                  Grass (O)         QF        Federer            67(4) 46 63 76(9) 63

 

An 8th career meeting for the pair, their 4th at a Grand Slam, their 2nd on grass and their first in a final.

 

Federer won the pair’s most recent meeting in the quarterfinals here last year, coming from 0-2 down for the 10th time in his career to win in 5 sets.

 

If Cilic wins today’s final in straight sets, he will become just the 5th player to defeat Federer in straight sets at a Grand Slam on 2 or more occasions. Only Novak Djokovic (3 times), Arnaud Clement, Alex Corretja and Rafael Nadal (all twice) have recorded multiple straight-sets wins against Federer at the majors.

 

FEDERER                                       v                                          CILIC

 

35                                          Age                                          28

6’1’’/1.85m                                  Height                                  6’6’’/1.98m        

5                                    ATP Ranking                                    6

104,445,185                     Career Earnings (US$)                      18,141,309

92                                         Titles                                         17

320-51                     Career Grand Slam Record                      94-36

18 titles                       Best Grand Slam Result              Won 2014 US Open

90-11                            Wimbledon Record                             27-9

1110-247                             Career Record                              420-223

163-24                        Career Record – Grass                          60-25

30-2                                  2017 Record                                 29-13

11-1                            2017 Record – Grass                            12-2

27-20                         Career Five-Set Record                         26-12

10                        Comebacks from 0-2 Down                         5

412-220                      Career Tiebreak Record                       153-138

17-5                           2017 Tiebreak Record                           9-11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Road to the Final

FEDERER	Time		Time	CILIC
d. Alexandr Dolgopolov 63 3-0 ret. (right ankle)	0:43	1st round	1:57	d. Philipp Kohlschreiber 64 62 63
d. Dusan Lajovic 76(0) 63 62	1:30	2nd round	2:12	d. Florian Mayer 76(2) 64 75
d. No. 27 Mischa Zverev 76(3) 64 64	1:49	3rd round	2:12	d. Steve Johnson 64 76(3) 64
d. No.13 Grigor Dimitrov 64 62 64 d. No. 6 Milos Raonic 64 62 76(4) d. No. 11 Tomas Berdych 76(4) 76(4) 64	1:38 1:58 2:18	Round of 16 QuarterfinalsSemifinals	1:41 3:30 2:56	d. No. 18 Roberto Bautista Agut 62 62 62 d. No. 16 Gilles Muller 36 76(6) 75 57 61 d. No. 24 Sam Querrey 67(6) 64 76(3) 75
total time on court	9:56	(IBM time)	14:28	total time on court

 

• FEDERER is bidding to become the first man in history to win 8 Wimbledon titles. He would become just the 2nd man in history to win 8 titles at the same Grand Slam event. Rafael Nadal became the first man to achieve the feat by winning the 8th of his 10 Roland Garros titles in 2013.

 

Most titles at the same Grand Slam tournament

Player	Grand Slam	Titles	Years
Rafael Nadal	Roland Garros	10	2005-08, 2010-2014, 2017
Roger Federer	Wimbledon	8??	2003-07, 2009, 2012, 2017??
Richard Sears	US Championships	7	1881-87**
William Renshaw	Wimbledon	7	1881-86, 1889
Bill Larned	US Championships	7	1901-02, 1907-11**
Bill Tilden	US Championships	7	1920-25, 1929
Pete Sampras	Wimbledon	7	1993-95, 1997-2000

** Challenge round played through 1911 at US Championships

 

• Federer is also bidding to win his 19th Grand Slam title and join Helen Wills Moody in joint-4th place on the all-time list for most Grand Slam singles titles – men and women. He is also aiming to extend his lead over Nadal (15 Grand Slam titles) on the all-time list for most men’s singles major titles.

 

All-time Grand Slam singles title leaders (men and women)

Player	No. of titles
Margaret Court	24
Serena Williams	23
Steffi Graf	22
Roger Federer Helen Wills Moody	19?? 19
Chris Evert Martina Navratilova	18 18

Active players in bold

 

• At 35 years 342 days, Federer is looking to become the oldest man in the Open Era to win the Wimbledon title. By winning the Australian Open this year aged 35 years 174 days (d. Nadal), he became the oldest man to win a Grand Slam title since Ken Rosewall won the 1972 Australian Open aged 37 years 62 days.

 

• Federer is bidding to win a 2nd Grand Slam title after turning 35. Rosewall is the only other man to have won major titles after his 35th birthday in the Open Era. By reaching the final here, Federer became the 2nd man in the Open Era, after Rosewall, to have reached multiple Grand Slam finals after turning 35.

 

Players aged 35+ in Grand Slam men’s singles finals (Open Era)

Age	Player	Grand Slam	Result in final
39 years 310 days	Ken Rosewall	1974 US Open	l. Jimmy Connors 61 60 61
39 years 246 days	Ken Rosewall	1974 Wimbledon	l. Jimmy Connors 61 61 64
37 years 62 days	Ken Rosewall	1972 Australian Open	d. Mal Anderson 76 63 75
36 years 306 days	Mal Anderson	1972 Australian Open	l. Ken Rosewall 76 63 75
36 years 73 days	Ken Rosewall	1971 Australian Open	d. Arthur Ashe 61 75 63
35 years 342 days	Roger Federer	2017 Wimbledon	v Marin Cilic
35 years 315 days	Ken Rosewall	1970 US Open	d. Tony Roche 26 64 76 63
35 years 244 days	Ken Rosewall	1970 Wimbledon	l. John Newcombe 57 63 62 36 61
35 years 174 days	Roger Federer	2017 Australian Open	d. Rafael Nadal 64 36 61 36 63
35 years 135 days	Andre Agassi	2005 US Open	l. Roger Federer 63 26 76(1) 61

• If Federer wins today, 5 years after his most-recent Wimbledon title, it will be the 2nd-longest wait between Wimbledon men’s singles titles in the Open Era. The longest gap between winning a Grand Slam men’s singles title in the Open Era at the same event is 8 years – Jimmy Connors won Wimbledon in 1974 and again in 1982.

 

• If Federer wins today’s final in straight sets, he will become just the 3rd man in the Open Era to win multiple Grand Slam titles without dropping a set. Of his 18 Grand Slam titles, he has won just one without dropping a set – at the 2007 Australian Open. It would be the 2nd time in the Open Era that a player has won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon without dropping a set and the 10th time in the Open Era a player has achieved the feat at a Grand Slam.

Grand Slam titles won without dropping a set (Open Era)

Player	Titles	Years
Bjorn Borg	3	1976 Wimbledon; 1978, 1980 Roland Garros
Rafael Nadal	3	2008, 2010, 2017 Roland Garros
Roger Federer	2??	2007 Australian Open; 2017 Wimbledon??
Ilie Nastase	1	1973 Roland Garros
Ken Rosewall	1	1971 Australian Open

 

• Federer is contesting his 102nd match at Wimbledon today – tying Connors’ record for most matches played at Wimbledon in the Open Era. Connors is the only other man to have played 100 matches at one Grand Slam event in the Open Era – at both Wimbledon (102) and the US Open (115). Federer has also played 100 matches at the Australian Open, with his 100th match in Melbourne coming in the final this year. He has played 89 matches at the US Open and 81 at Roland Garros.

 

• Federer is bidding to record his 91st match-win here and extend his record for the most Wimbledon match-wins in the Open Era. By defeating Alexandr Dolgopolov in the 1st round here, he took sole ownership of the record for most match-wins at Wimbledon in the Open Era ahead of Connors (84).

 

• Wimbledon is Federer’s most successful Grand Slam event in terms of titles won, matches won and finals reached.

 

	Titles won	Win-loss record	Finals reached
Australian Open	5	87-13	6
Roland Garros	1	65-16	5
Wimbledon	8??	90-11	11
US Open	5	78-11	7

 

• Just 3 of Federer’s 10 Grand Slam final defeats have come at Wimbledon. He has a 7-3 win-loss record in Wimbledon finals and an 18-10 record in Grand Slam finals.

 

Federer in Grand Slam finals

Event	Result
2003 Wimbledon	d. Mark Philippoussis 76(5) 62 76(3)
2004 Australian Open	d. Marat Safin 76(3) 64 62
2004 Wimbledon	d. Andy Roddick 46 75 76(3) 64
2004 US Open	d. Lleyton Hewitt 60 76(3) 60
2005 Wimbledon	d. Andy Roddick 62 76(2) 64
2005 US Open	d. Andre Agassi 63 26 76(1) 61
2006 Australian Open	d. Marcos Baghdatis 57 75 60 62
2006 Roland Garros	l. Rafael Nadal 16 61 64 76(4)
2006 Wimbledon	d. Rafael Nadal 60 76(5) 67(2) 63
2006 US Open	d. Andy Roddick 62 46 75 61
2007 Australian Open	d. Fernando Gonzalez 76(2) 64 64
2007 Roland Garros	l. Rafael Nadal 63 46 63 64
2007 Wimbledon	d. Rafael Nadal 76(7) 46 76(3) 26 62
2007 US Open	d. Novak Djokovic 76(4) 76(2) 64
2008 Roland Garros	l. Rafael Nadal 61 63 60
2008 Wimbledon	l. Rafael Nadal 64 64 67(5) 67(8) 97
2008 US Open	d. Andy Murray 62 75 62
2009 Australian Open	l. Rafael Nadal 75 36 76(3) 36 62
2009 Roland Garros	d. Robin Soderling 61 76(1) 64
2009 Wimbledon	d. Andy Roddick 57 76(6) 76(5) 36 16-14
2009 US Open	l. Juan Martin del Potro 36 76(5) 46 76(4) 62
2010 Australian Open	d. Andy Murray 63 64 76(11)
2011 Roland Garros	l. Rafael Nadal 75 76(3) 57 61
2012 Wimbledon	d. Andy Murray 46 75 63 64
2014 Wimbledon	l. Novak Djokovic 67(7) 64 76(4) 57 64
2015 Wimbledon	l. Novak Djokovic 76(1) 67(10) 64 63
2015 US Open	l. Novak Djokovic 64 57 64 64
2017 Australian Open	d. Rafael Nadal 64 36 61 36 63
2017 Wimbledon	v Marin Cilic

 

• By reaching the final here for the 11th time, Federer has become the first man to reach the final at a single Grand Slam event on more than 10 occasions.

 

Players to reach 10 finals at a single Grand Slam event (all-time)

Roger Federer	11 Wimbledon finals
Rafael Nadal	10 Roland Garros finals
Bill Tilden	10 US Open finals

 

• By reaching his 11th Wimbledon final, Federer has extended the all-time record that he took sole ownership of at 2012 Wimbledon.

Wimbledon finals reached (all-time)

Player	No. of finals
Roger Federer	11
Boris Becker Arthur Gore Pete Sampras	7 7 7
Bjorn Borg Jimmy Connors Rod Laver	6 6 6

 

• By reaching his 29th Grand Slam final, Federer has also extended the all-time record that he took sole ownership of at 2009 Wimbledon. Federer has an 18-10 win-loss record in Grand Slam finals.

 

Grand Slam finals reached (all-time)

Player	No. of GS finals
Roger Federer	29
Rafael Nadal	22
Novak Djokovic	21
Ivan Lendl	19
Pete Sampras	18

 

• Federer hit the 10,000th ace of his career during his 1st round match here – becoming just the 3rd man to hit 10,000 aces since the ATP began tracking the statistic in 1991. Federer has now hit a total of 10,056 aces at Tour-level, behind Ivo Karlovic (12,062) and Goran Ivanisevic (10,131).

 

• Last year here Federer reached his 11th Wimbledon semifinal – and his 40th Grand Slam semifinal overall – but fell to Milos Raonic in 5-sets.

 

• Federer is contesting his 70th Grand Slam event at 2017 Wimbledon, tying Fabrice Santoro’s record for most Grand Slam appearances. (See Preview page 8)

 

• Federer warmed up for Wimbledon by winning his 92nd Tour-level title and his 9th at Halle, defeating Alexander Zverev 61 63 in the final. He became just the 2nd man in the Open Era, after Nadal, to win a tournament on 9 or more occasions.

 

• Also in 2017, Federer won the titles at Indian Wells-1000 (d. Stan Wawrinka) and Miami-1000 (d. Nadal). He lost in the 2nd round at Dubai (l. Evgeny Donskoy) and in his opening match at Stuttgart (l. Tommy Haas). With 4 Tour-level titles in 2017, he is in joint-first place with Nadal on the list for most Tour-level titles won this year. He withdrew from Roland Garros to prepare for the grass court season.

 

• In 2012, Federer equalled William Renshaw and Pete Sampras’ record of 7 Wimbledon titles, defeating Andy Murray in the final. He also won the title at Wimbledon in 2003-07 and 2009.

 

• This is Federer’s 19th consecutive appearance at Wimbledon, putting him in joint-1st place of the list with Connors for consecutive appearances here. Federer is 2nd to Connors (20) for most total appearances at Wimbledon, with 19.

 

• Federer holds the Open Era record for the most career grass court titles with 16 titles on the surface. In addition to 7 titles at Wimbledon, his other 9 titles were won at Halle in 2003-06, 2008, 2013-15 and 2017.

 

• Federer is the most successful active player on grass with a 163-24 career win-loss record.

 

• Federer won the Wimbledon boys’ singles here in 1998. He is one of only 4 former boys’ champions to have gone on to win the men’s singles here.

 

Players to have won Wimbledon boys’ singles and men’s singles title

Player	Boys’ Champion	Men’s Champion
Bjorn Borg	1972	1976-80
Pat Cash	1982	1987
Stefan Edberg	1983	1988, 1990
Roger Federer	1998	2003-07, 2009, 2012, 2017??

 

• Federer is coached by former world No. 3 Ivan Ljubicic, who reached the 3rd round here in 2006-07 and 2011, and Severin Luthi.

 

• CILIC is bidding to become the 2nd Croatian player – man or woman – to win the Wimbledon title after Goran Ivanisevic in 2001.

 

• Cilic is bidding to become the first Croatian player – man or woman – to win multiple Grand Slam titles. Ivanisevic and Iva Majoli are the only other Croatian players to have won a Grand Slam title in the Open Era.

 

Croatian players to win Grand Slam titles (Open Era)

Player	Grand Slam titles won
Marin Cilic	2?? (2014 US Open, 2017 Wimbledon??)
Goran Ivanisevic	1 (2001 Wimbledon)
Iva Majoli	1 (1997 Roland Garros)

 

• If Cilic wins the title here on his 11th Wimbledon appearance, he will move into 2nd place on the list for the most attempts before winning the Wimbledon title.

 

        Most attempts before winning Wimbledon (Open Era)

Player	No. of attempts	Year won
Goran Ivanisevic	14	2001
Marin Cilic??	11??	2017??
Andy Murray	8	2013
Novak Djokovic	7	2011
Arthur Ashe	6	1975
Stefan Edberg	6	1988
Jan Kodes	6	1973
Richard Krajicek	6	1996

 

• If Cilic wins his 2nd Grand Slam title on his 10th Grand Slam appearance since winning his first major title at the 2014 US Open, he will go into 4th place on the list for the most attempts before winning a 2nd Grand Slam title in the Open Era.

 

Most attempts before winning 2nd Grand Slam title (Open Era)

Player	1st Grand Slam title	2nd Grand Slam title	Attempts before winning 2nd Grand Slam title
Marat Safin	2000 US Open	2005 Australian Open	14
Novak Djokovic	2008 Australian Open	2011 Australian Open	12
Gustavo Kuerten	1997 Roland Garros	2000 Roland Garros	12
Marin Cilic	2014 US Open	2017 Wimbledon??	10??
Pete Sampras	1990 US Open	1993 Wimbledon	9

 

• Cilic is bidding to become the 22nd man in the Open Era to win Wimbledon. 21 of the 54 different Open Era Grand Slam champions have won the title here.

 

• Cilic is bidding to become the 31st man in the Open Era to win multiple Grand Slam titles. Stan Wawrinka is the most recent man to complete the feat – following up on his 2014 Australian Open title by winning the titles at 2015 Roland Garros and the 2016 US Open.

 

• By reaching his 2nd Grand Slam final, Cilic has become just the 2nd Croatian player – man or woman – to reach multiple Grand Slam finals after Ivanisevic.

 

Croatian players – men or women – in Grand Slam finals (Open Era)

Player	Grand Slam finals reached
Goran Ivanisevic	4 (1992, 1994, 1998, 2001 Wimbledon)
Marin Cilic	2 (2014 US Open, 2017 Wimbledon)
Zeljko Franulovic*	1 (1970 Roland Garros)
Iva Majoli	1 (1997 Roland Garros)
Niki Pilic*	1 (1973 Roland Garros)

* Franulovic and Pilic are both Croatian-born but represented Yugoslavia throughout their careers

 

• Cilic is looking to become the first player outside of the ‘Big Four’ (today’s opponent, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray) to win Wimbledon since 2002, when Lleyton Hewitt won the title here. He is just the 2nd player outside those 4 – after Milos Raonic last year – to reach the final here since 2010, when Nadal defeated Tomas Berdych.

 

• Cilic is bidding to become the first No. 7 seed to win the Wimbledon men’s singles title in the Open Era. A No. 7 seed has won a Grand Slam men’s singles title just once in the Open Era – when No. 7 Jan Kodes defeated No. 5 Zeljko Franulovic at 1970 Roland Garros. The 3 other No. 7 seeds to reach a Grand Slam final in the Open Era all finished runner-up – Petr Korda at 1992 Roland Garros, Todd Martin at the 1999 US Open, and Andre Agassi at the 2005 US Open.

 

• Cilic is bidding to become the first man to win the Wimbledon title after having finished runner-up at Queen’s in the same year since 2000, when Pete Sampras fell to Lleyton Hewitt in the Queen’s final before defeating Pat Rafter in the Wimbledon final.

 

• Cilic has lost 11 of his last 12 matches against Top 5 opposition at the Grand Slams. His only win in that time came against No. 3 today’s opponent in the semifinals at the 2014 US Open. He has a 3-13 win-loss record against Top 5 opposition at the majors overall, but has never defeated a Top 5 player at Wimbledon. The highest-ranked player he has defeated here is No. 6 Berdych in the 3rd round in 2014 and No. 6 Kei Nishikori in the round of 16 last year.

 

• By reaching the final here for the first time, Cilic has recorded his best Wimbledon result. His previous best result here was reaching the quarterfinals for 3 straight years, falling to Djokovic in 2014 and 2015, and to today’s opponent in 5 sets here last year despite holding a 2-0 lead.

 

• By reaching the final here, Cilic has bettered the achievement of his coach Jonas Bjorkman, who fell to Federer in the semifinals at 2006 Wimbledon.

 

• By defeating Gilles Muller in 5 sets in the quarterfinals here, Cilic improved his win-loss record in 5-set matches at Wimbledon to 6-4. He has a 26-12 win-loss record in 5-set matches overall.

 

• Prior to coming here, Cilic finished runner-up at Queen’s, falling to Feliciano Lopez in a 3rd set tiebreak. He also reached the semifinals at ’s-Hertogenbosch (l. Ivo Karlovic).

 

• In Grand Slam play in 2017, Cilic reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros (l. Wawrinka), but fell in the 2nd round at the Australian Open (l. Dan Evans). This is his 39th Grand Slam overall.

 

• Cilic’s best result in 2017 is winning the title at Istanbul (d. Raonic). As well as reaching the final at Queen’s and the semifinals at ’s-Hertogenbosch, he also reached the last 4 at Acapulco (l. Nadal).

 

• Cilic has won 17 career singles titles. Just one of his titles has come on grass – at 2012 Queen’s. Cilic was trailing 76(3) 3-4 when David Nalbandian was defaulted for unsportsmanlike conduct after kicking the front of a sponsor’s advertising board which struck a linesman’s leg.

 

• Cilic plays here as No. 7 seed – his joint-highest Grand Slam seeding. He has been seeded No. 7 at each of the last 3 Grand Slam events.

 

• Cilic reached a career-high ranking of No. 6 in November 2016. He plays here at the same ranking. He will break the Top 5 for the first time, at No. 5, if he wins the title.

 

• Cilic reached the quarterfinals of the boys’ singles at 2005 Wimbledon (l. Robin Haase). He finished the year at 2 in the ITF Junior Rankings behind Donald Young after winning Junior Roland Garros (d. Antal van der Duim) and reaching the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and the US Open.

 

• Cilic has played Davis Cup for Croatia since 2006, winning 8 rubbers in 2016 as Croatia finished runner-up to Argentina. Croatia plays Colombia in a World Group play-off in Bogota on 15-17 September.

 

• Cilic is coached by Jonas Bjorkman and Ivan Cinkus.

 

 **** All statistics courtesy of Grand Slam Media and the ITF.