Tennis World english 38 Tennis World English 38 | Page 14

A Shared
Destiny
by Beatrice Gollini

If
you
go
onto
the
official
ATP
website,
you
can
easily
find
a
list
of
every
match
Juan
Martin
Del
Potro
and
Marin
Cilic
have
ever
played.
There
are
ten
in
total,
starting
in
2009.
However,
these
ten
matches
have
a
much
more
interesting
history
than
just
their
results
would
ever
hint
at.
Elsewhere
on
the
site
is
a
biography
of
each
man,
where
we
can
start
to
appreciate
the
interesting
relationship
between
these
two
dynamics
players,
both
on
and
off
the
court.
Del
Potro
was
born
in
Tandil,
Argentina,
on
23
September,
1988.
Just
five
days
later,
about
12
thousand
miles
away,
Marin
Cilic
was
born
in
Medjugorje,
Croatia.
Both
men,
of
course,
went
on
to
become
professional
tennis
players.
Cilic
enjoyed
his
first
success
slightly
earlier
than
Del
Potro,
winning
the
ITF
event
in
Bosnia
in
2001.
Delpo
won
his
first
Futures
tournament
in
August
of
2003
in
Buenos
Aires.
During
those
years,
Delpo
and
Cilic
faced
off
several
times
on
the
junior
Circuit,
their
most
significant
clash
coming
at
the
Orange
Bowl
semi-final
in
2002.
Del
Potro
beat
Cilic
6-1,
6-3
before
going
on
to
beat
Pavel
Tchekov
6-2,
7-6
in
the
final.
Del
Potro
and
Cilic
both
made
their
ATP
debuts
in
2005.
Cilic
played
in
Umag,
where
he
lost
to
Belgian
Kristof
Vliegen
in
the
first
round.
Del
Potro,
however,
won
a
match
in
Vina
del
Mar
before
being
eliminated
by
Fernando
González.
Even
today
two
players
have
many
things
in
common.
Del
Potro
has
won
18
ATP
titles
and

his
biggest
win
was
the
2009
US
Open.
Cilic
has
15
titles,
and
his
biggest
win
was
also
the
US
Open
in
2014.
Their
highest
ranking
is
also
nearly
identical,
with
Del
Potro
rising
to
number
four
and
Cilic
to
number
eight.
They
are
both
about
two
meters
tall,
play
with
twohanded
backhands
and
have
similar
career
earnings
($16
million
for
Del
Potro
vers