Croatia has had its fair share of tennis glory in its short time as an independent nation. Goran Ivanesivic and Iva Majoli both won Grand Slams in their careers and the likes of Ivo Karlovic and Ivan Ljubicic have continued the presence of Croatians in the upper ranks of the ATP tennis rankings, both consistantly in the top 30 over the past few years. 

The small country, famed for its beautiful landscapes after a era of war-torn images has a new star in the making. His name is Marin Cilic. The youngster is still only 19 but in his first full season on the main ATP tour Marin improved his ranking from a lowly 170 to a high of 71 by the end of 2007. 

During that year, Cilic showed the tennis world that he can play comfortably on all surfaces. He won smaller challenger tournaments on clay in Marrakesh and Casablanca before reaching the quarter-finals on the grass of the prestigious Stella Artois tournament in London.

'The big serving Croatian achieved a career high 39 in January and currently lies in 27th place on the ATP tour race rankings'


The hard courts of Beijing where to Cilic's liking, reaching a quarter-final birth in September, and the young Croat finished the year with an excellent semi-final spot in St Petersberg, Russia, on the indoor carpet.

The ability to play on all surfaces is important for any future champion. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic adapt their games well to cope and Cilic looks set to continue in this vain. 2007 showed Cilic to be a real danger with victories over top players such as Nikolay Davydenko, Tim Henman, Jo-Wilfed Tsonga and new Latvian star Ernest Gulbis.

This year has seen Cilic rise even further in the rankings, reaching the semi-finals in Chennai, India, in his first tournament of the new season before reaching the fourth round in the Australian Open, recording excellent victories over former finalist and 7th seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and rising star Nicolas Almagro of Spain.

The big serving Croatian achieved a career high 39 in January and currently lies in 27th place on the ATP tour race rankings.

How far Cilic can improve in 2008 will be a important factor in his quest to become a future No. 1. If he can gain a top 20 ranking by the end of the year, this colud give the Croat the confidence to aim high and he has already been predicted by some in the sport to be a genuine challenger to Federer.

He isn't ready yet, but Cilic is young enough to wait for his chance. If not able to match Federer, Marin Cilic is surely good enough to become the new star of Croat tennis and make Goran Ivanesivic's achievements a thing of the past.