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With Monday being a day of goodbye plaques for two outstanding players headed for retirement in 30-year-old Dominic Thiem and 32-year-old Diego Schwartzman, it’s worth mentioning that 10 years ago, Croatia’s Marin Cilic won the US Open.

So what is Cilic, who last played the US Open in 2022 and lost in five sets to some kid named Carlos Alcaraz in the fourth round, doing this week?

He’s playing the Rafa Nadal Open Challenger in Mallorca.

He sounds really pumped! Which is great.

Cilic will meet lucky loser Alberto Barroso Campos, aged 28 and ranked No. 231, in the first round Wednesday.

Rare Non Big-3 Slam title

Then 25 and ranked No. 16, Cilic broke through the wall of the peaking Big 3 that year, defeating Kei Nishikori in the final and posting one of the few Grand Slam titles not won by Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal during that period.

He defeated Federer in the semis, in straight sets. Nadal didn’t play, and Djokovic was shocked by No. 10 seed Nishikori in the semifinals.

(Notably: Nishikori, who has been star-crossed by injuries even more than Cilic has, is playing a Challenger in Como, Italy this week after having used up his allotted protected ranking passes).

From the 2005 edition of Roland Garros through to the 2020 pandemic edition of the US Open won by Thiem, it didn’t happen often. Andy Murray won three; Stan Wawrinka also won three.

Beyond that, Juan Martin del Potro won the 2009 US Open. And then there was Cilic in 2014.

The Croat has struggled to get back since undergoing knee surgery in Jan. 2023. He returned for one match in Umag in July of that year, and was gone again until the start of 2024.

He played four events in January and early February – including the Australian Open and Davis Cup and a fruitless trip down to Buenos Aires for the clay – and went 0-for-4.

This will be the first time he’s been back on the match court since then.

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Stephanie Myles

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