Marin Cilic was born on September 28th 1988 in Yugoslavia. In 2005 he was the number ranked junior in the world and won the junior French Open. Later that year he turned pro. In 2007 he started to show signs of progress winning two tournaments on the challenger circuit.

He also reached the Quarter Finals at Queens Club beating Tim Henman on the way. Cilic continued to climb the rankings at the start of 2008. He had his best performance in a Grand Slam reaching the 4th Round of the Australian Open including a win over Fernando Gonzalez.