Skip to content

LEAGUES News

Cilic beats No. 4 Draper to lead the way for veteran players at Wimbledon

Anadolu / Getty

LONDON (AP) — Marin Cilic helped make Thursday a great day for the 30-somethings at Wimbledon.

The 36-year-old Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion and 2017 Wimbledon runner-up, stunned fourth-seeded Jack Draper 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 in a second-round match on No. 1 Court to eliminate the top British player from the grass-court Grand Slam tournament.

Cilic is playing at Wimbledon for the first time since 2021 after having two separate knee surgeries over the last two years. But his big serve and ground strokes are still intact, as evidenced by his 16 aces and 53 total winners against Draper.

“In this part of (my) career, to come back to play at this level, in front of this crowd, against Jack, it’s just incredible,” Cilic said.

Cilic was one of seven men aged 33 or older who played at Wimbledon on Thursday. His win means five of them will reach the third round.

Novak Djokovic beat 35-year-old Dan Evans, 34-year-old Grigor Dimitrov ousted Corentin Moutet and 35-year-old Jan-Lennard Struff finished off a win over Felix Auger-Aliassime in a match that had been suspended on Wednesday.

Later on, French veteran Gael Monfils — who is 38, like Djokovic — was playing 33-year-old Marton Fucsovics.

___

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

RELATED NEWS

GRICHUK INSIDE-THE-PARK HOMER!!!!
D-Backs' Grichuk motors around for inside-the-park HR after wild bounce 🏃
Pete Alonso cranks his second home run of the day and it's A...
Mets' Alonso cranks 2nd HR of game to break it open vs. Yankees 🐻‍❄️🍎
Addison Barger walks it off for YOUR FIRST PLACE @BlueJays! ...
Red-hot Blue Jays win 7th straight on Barger's walk-off
The @Twins squeeze out a walk-off win 👀
Twins beat Rays on Brooks Lee's walk-off squeeze 🥳
Yohel Pozo just hit this ball OUT of Wrigley Field for the l...
Pozo sends game-winning HR to Waveland as Cardinals beat Cubs at Wrigley 💪
After homering THREE times yesterday, Michael Busch homers i...
Cubs' Busch goes deep again for 4th HR in last 2 days vs. Cardinals 🥵