{"id":96462,"date":"2026-01-22T06:42:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T11:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=96462"},"modified":"2026-01-22T07:01:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:01:28","slug":"marin-cilic-equals-goran-ivanisevics-croatian-win-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/22\/marin-cilic-equals-goran-ivanisevics-croatian-win-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Marin Cilic Equals Goran Ivanisevic\u2019s Croatian Win Record"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Marin Cilic has written another line into Croatian tennis history, matching the career win tally of one of his country\u2019s greatest icons with a composed display at the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/category\/australian-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Australian Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 37-year-old defeated Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 in the second round at Melbourne Park to secure his 599th tour-level victory. That result brings him level with former World No. 2 and 2001 Wimbledon champion <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Open_Era_tennis_records_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_singles\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Goran Ivanisevic<\/a> for the most wins by a Croatian man in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Open_Era_tennis_records_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_singles\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Open Era<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Marin Cilic&#8217;s Dominant Win<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Denis Shapovalov v Marin Cilic Highlights | Australian Open 2026 Second Round\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/P_yYpb6FtRc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It was a performance that reflected the qualities that have defined Cilic\u2019s long career: a heavy first serve, clean ball-striking from the baseline, and the calm authority of a player who has spent more than a decade competing at the highest level. Against the explosive but inconsistent Shapovalov, Cilic controlled the tempo from the outset and never allowed the Canadian to dictate play.<\/p>\n<p>Cilic\u2019s achievement is significant not only for its historical symmetry but for its timing. Well into the later stages of his career, the former World No. 3 and 2014 US Open champion continues to add to a record that places him among the most <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Open_Era_tennis_records_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_singles\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">durable<\/a> and accomplished players of his generation.<\/p>\n<p>He now stands on the verge of another milestone. A victory in his next match would see him move past Ivanisevic and claim a solitary place at the top of Croatia\u2019s Open Era win list with 600 tour-level victories. Should he reach that mark, Cilic would also become just the second active player to achieve the feat after Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 610px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBx3tEfi1b\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 2733px; aspect-ratio: 2733\/1829;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>Standing in his way will be either the 12th seed Casper Ruud or Spain\u2019s Jaume Munar, as Cilic looks to turn parity into history in Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marin Cilic has written another line into Croatian tennis history, matching the career win tally of one of his country\u2019s greatest icons with a composed display at the Australian Open. The 37-year-old defeated Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 in the second round at Melbourne Park to secure his 599th tour-level victory. That result brings him [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4883,"featured_media":86423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,2,9],"tags":[43454,205,1604,776,11448,50],"class_list":["post-96462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-open","category-atp","category-featured","category-news","tag-2026-australian-open","tag-australian-open","tag-croatian-tennis","tag-denis-shapovalov","tag-goran-ivanisevic","tag-marin-cilic"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4883"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96462"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96495,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96462\/revisions\/96495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}