Marin Cilic: Roger Federer should thank my wife
In an interview to the Player's Tribune the world no. 7 Marin Cilic recalled his unusual training session with Roger Federer in the off-season, 12 months ago. They trained together during the 2017 holidays, and no coaches or team members were there.
Cilic explained everything in detail. 'After the 2017 season me and my wife went to the Maldives, in one of the beautiful islands over there, and when we got there, me and her played some tennis,' said Cilic.
'She is also a lover for tennis, she plays with her own friends, with her sister, and anytime they play it's always intense. They play very fiercely, and before we came there, she had some losing streak. And she said, You know, when we are here we are gonna practice every single day. And you are gonna me teach well, so I can comeback home and start winning some matches". And so after a couple days Roger calls me. He heard that I was on the island as well and he said, "Listen, when you are here let's try to hit. What do you think, that we go play out tomorrow some tennis?" And I said, "Why not? Let's give it a shot". And my wife was like, What's going on? This is my off-season, I need to train this week. This is my time. For you guys this is vacation but for me this is serious staff." So she was not happy about it, but she let me play with him. But as long as I had energy for to practice with her too. I would wake up in the morning, get some breakfast, would get a coffee with my wife. After that me and Roger would take a boat to take us to the island across, which had a tennis court. The practice were quite easy, it was incredible to have those practice sessions in Maldives in the wild forest surrounded by palm trees, surrounded by bats as well. It was an incredible scenary. Also with having real coconuts, drinking them on the side of the court and what we enjoyed as well was that our minds were completely free, completely stress free, just hitting tennis balls and enjoying the practice there. We would practice there, and my wife would come after the session of me and Roger. I would have the second session, which second one was completely serious and very dedicated. And I had to be a coach so it was long sessions for me, practicing two sessions in a day with tennis. But it was worth it, make wife happy. That's the most important. Roger called me up next day and again, "We are gonna do this again. It was great. Let's hit one more time." And my wife goes: "This is my off-season, this is my preparation period. Roger, you are not having too much of a career left, and my career is just starting so I need to practice." Then Roger was saying, "Well I can warm up Marin, so he is ready for you". So that was the thing and she ended up having enough of training that week and getting to the winning streaks after we came back from the vacation. And I guess I ended up playing really well in Australia, playing with Roger in the final and Roger winning. So I guess Roger should thank my wife for letting him play with me, and actually that was the start of a great journey for him for winning in Australia.'
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from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2Rf03L5
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