Huge Pay-Day Awaits Čilić in New York

After handing arguably the greatest player in the world a ‘tennis lesson’, Croatian Marin Čilić is awaiting the biggest pay-day of his career when he plays in the final of the US Open tomorrow…

Čilić, who will be playing in his first ever Grand Slam final, blew 5-time champion Roger Federer off the court in New York on Saturday, winning in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, and set up a hefty pay-day. A win in tomorrow’s final will net the 6 ft 6 in a tidy 3 million USD, a loss and Čilić banks a cool 1.4 million USD. Either way a great pay-day and one that will please his coach, former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanišević.

“This is (just) his second (grand-slam) semi-final and to watch him playing against probably the best player ever and giving him a tennis lesson, it’s unbelievable. He beat him in every aspect of the game, he was serving well, playing well. Before the match we spoke about how he should play, he stuck with the plan from the first to last point and I can only as a coach be proud as everything is paying off,”Ivanišević said, taking particular satisfaction in his pupil’s serve.

“But three aces in a row, is just beautiful. Just beautiful. It’s just like watching myself,” quipped a happy Ivanišević.

Čilić faces Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the final. Nishikori, who upset Novak Djokovic in the other semi-final, leads Čilić 5-2 head to head.