Marin Cilic has broken an ATP Tour record after winning the Hangzhou Open title.
The 35-year-old defeated China’s Zhang Zhizhen 7-6, 7-6 to win the 21st title of his career and a first since 2021.
Since the start of last season the Croatian has endured a nightmare run with injuries and fell outside the top 700.
The veteran played just his seventh tournament of the year in China, but he grew in confidence throughout the week and is now a champion on the ATP Tour once again.
What record did Marin Cilic break by winning the Hangzhou Open title?
By winning the Hangzhou Open, Cilic became the lowest ranked player to win an ATP Tour title in history.
The 2014 US Open winner started the tournament ranked down at 777 following his lack of playing time since the start of 2023.
He has taken the record from former World number one Lleyton Hewitt, who won the Adelaide Open in 1998 while ranked at 550.
But the quality Cilic possesses far exceeds his ranking and that showed as he dropped just two sets on the way to returning to the ATP’s winner’s circle once again.
Following his victory, Cilic is now up to No. 212 in the ATP Rankings after claiming his 16th hard court title.
Who did Marin Cilic beat on the way to winning the Hangzhou Open?
Cilic began his Hangzhou Open campaign by coming from a set down to beat America’s Zachary Svajda.
After losing the first set, Cilic lost just three more games for the rest of the match as he claimed a 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 win.
Cilic took out Yoshihito Nishioka 6-4, 6-1 in a very strong performance, before just scraping past Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-2, 6-7(4), 7-6(5) in the quarter-finals.
In the last four Cilic then upset Brandon Nakashima, who has enjoyed a solid 2024 season, before needing two tiebreaks to defeat Zhang in the championship match.
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