Cilic: "It's Less Tough to Break into the Top 10 Today"

Marin Cilic spoke to the Spanish media outlet Punto de Break about today's tennis and compared it to the players from the previous generation, whom he knew well.

He stated: "Today's players are different, both mentally and in terms of their tennis. They have a more similar style.

Perhaps you found more variety among the tennis players from 15 years ago.

Gasquet, Monfils, Tsonga, Roddick, Roger, Rafa, Andy, Novak, Del Potro, Nalbandian, Berdych, Ferrer… that list alone represents a very diverse mix, as well as a group of players who reached an incredible level of consistency.

Having Roger, Rafa, Novak, Andy, Stan, Del Potro… all at the same time was something unique.

Among them all, plus all the others I mentioned earlier, they managed to achieve an unreal level of consistency.

It was practically impossible for players of Davydenko’s, Berdych’s, or Ferrer’s caliber—impressive athletes who would have won plenty of tournaments in this category—to claim a Masters 1000 title.

Now we have Alcaraz and Sinner, who are still very young but progressing well.

They are the ones leading the way; it’s a new generation, so we’ll see. The future will tell if they turn out to be a better generation or not.

I agree that it’s less tough to break into the Top 10 today. Right now, we don’t see much consistency among the top players.

They win and lose almost at the same rate, though it’s also true that most of them are still very young and looking to develop their game at the highest level.

But I still think winning a Grand Slam is incredibly difficult."