Ok, so this will be the final part of my look at the 2018 Australian open as it has now finished (well it finished on Sunday, so I'm just getting round to doing this!) and I will look at how the men's final turned out in this post.
So, let's take a look....
MEN'S FINAL
Well, the men's final was of course between the defending champion, Roger Federer and Marin Cilic, the 6th seed, who was playing in his 1st Australian open final. And this was a re-match of their Wimbledon final last year where unforunately, Cilic sustained a foot injury that lead to a straight sets victory for Roger. However this time round, Cilic was fully fit, so we could expect a different contest than last year's at SW19.
And the match itself proved to be just that as we got a very competitive and entertaining one, which wasn't quite in the same league as the ladies final but it wasn't entirely far off. However, the match started with Roger being way too good for a rather nervous Cilic, which leads to the Croatian being broken twice and Rog grabbing the opening set in under 25 minutes. The 2nd set however was a much closer affair and Cilic then pushed play into a tiebreak, which despite going a mini-break down, Cilic fought back and levelled the match at a set all, as Roger dropped his first set of the tournament. In the 3rd set however, Roger re-established his dominance over Cilic and he broke his serve once more and efficiently closed it out to grab the two sets to one lead. And in the 4th set, Cilic went an immediate break down and it looked like it was as good as over for him but Cilic still wasn't done yet as he broke again and he then went on to raise his level and break Roger yet again to level the match at two sets all.
And at the start of the deciding 5th set, Cilic imposed himself on Rog once again as he gained a couple of break points but ultimately he was unable to capitalise on them as the defending champion held his nerve and serve. And from here, Cilic derailed himself as his serve broke down and it wasn't long before he found himself 5-1 down and from here there was no way back as Roger secured his sixth Australian open title and his 20th career major overall with a 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory.
THOUGHTS
Well there was little doubt that this was a very fine contest and a very solid end to the tournament, which saw once again that Roger Federer really is the GOAT (Greatest of all time) as he secured his 20th major title and if he get's one more, he will get the key to the door! And for Roger to do this in this era of the sport at the age of 36 is truly incredible and what's even more incredible is that he remains the only fully fit member out of the big four right now! And with none of his other competitors standing in his way right now, there is no reason that Roger can't go on to have yet another year like he did last year.
And you could clearly see at the end of the trophy presentation how much the game still means to Rog as he broke down in tears infront of the Rod Laver arena crowd, who applauded him warmly and we even saw the great man, Rod Laver in the crowd, taking a picture of Roger while it happened! And with this win you would again have to say that Roger is the overwhelming favourite to win Wimbledon once more this year and if Rafa were not fit to play the French open then just maybe it might be worth Roger considering to play that aswell. However we still don't know what Roger plans on doing when it comes to the clay court season, so we will just have to wait and see.
As for Marin Cilic, well it was a disappointing end to this campaign but he still put in a terrific effort in the final and really made a match of it as he pushed Roger all the way to a 5th set. And Cilic was not entirely far off breaking Roger at the start of the 5th in order to possibly get ahead himself and who knows what could have happened if he did? Ultimately though, I have to say even if Cilic did break Roger there would be the inevitable likelihood that Roger would have broken back and went on to secure the win anyway.
Regardless however of Cilic's loss, it still was a great effort to reach his 3rd major final and the tournament also sees him achieve a new career high ranking of No.3. And I would have to say that if Cilic can reach three major finals, having won one already, there is every chance he can go on to win a 2nd major title and I think it would be safe to say that he remains a strong favourite for the US Open later this year.
SIGN OFF
Right, so that's it for now and the Australian open is now finished, with one down there are three more slams to go as the next one will of course be the French Open in Paris, which starts at the end of May. However there will be plenty of tennis to be had before then as the American hard court swing will start in March and the clay court season kicks off in April going into May before the French begins.
So, I'll finish by saying a congrats to Roger Federer for his 20th grand slam title and for Marin Cilic's great effort in reaching the men's final. And I will see you sometime in the future on this blog although not sure yet when but I will at some point do another post on here.
So, till then its bye for now!
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