Marin Cilic wins US Open: six things about the Croatian

Marin Cilic became only the third person from outside the big four of men's tennis to win a Grand Slam in almost a decade as he crushed Kei Nishikori in three sets to win the US Open on Monday night.

Since Marat Safin won the Australian Open in 2005, only Juan Martin del Potro and Stanislas Wawrinka have denied Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, and this was the first Grand Slam final since 2005 not to feature one of the big four.

But there are signs that times are changing in men's tennis and Cilic became the second new Grand Slam winner of the year after Wawrinka, who won in Australia.

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What do we know about the big-serving Croat?

He was born in Bosnia

Although he now represents Croatia, Cilic was born in the Bosnian town of Medjugorje in 1988, then part of Yugoslavia. His father, Zdenko, was a farmer and hoped Marin and his brothers would become sportsmen, as he had never had the opportunity. But the outbreak of civil war in 1992 put those hopes on hold. Yet, while nearby towns and villages were destroyed, Medjugorje escaped unscathed even though the fighting got as close as 30km away. It was after the war that Cilic began to play tennis.

He was 'discovered' by Goran Ivanisevic

The 2001 Wimbledon champion was asked to look at Cilic at the age of 13 and was impressed. "They brought me Marin when he was 13 and a half to see what I thought. I practised with him a lot and gave him advice," he recalled in 2009. As a result of that meeting Cilic decided to make tennis his priority and two years later Ivanisevic sent him to work with his former coach Bob Brett in Italy and he joined the junior circuit.

He has a rivalry with Andy Murray

He is a year younger Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic but has developed something of a rivalry with the Scot. Cilic won the French Open title in boy's singles in 2005, beating Murray in the semi-final. "That win opened me many doors and I was instantly recognised as a player who could have great future in tennis," he says. "I started to receive wild cards into different tournaments." In 2009 he ruined Andy Murray's hopes of a maiden Grand Slam, when he beat him at the US Open.

He was champion of Queen's

British tennis fans may also have heard of Cilic as he has been a regular at Queen's. He won the title in controversial circumstances in 2012 when his opponent David Nalbandian was disqualified after a bizarre incident in which he kicked a line judge. He lost to Murray at Wimbledon that same year and was beaten by the Scot in the final at Queen's a year later.

He was banned in 2013

After making his Grand Slam debut in 2007 he gradually improved and made the semi-finals of the Australian Open in 2010. But in 2013 he pulled out of Wimbledon after being told he had failed a drugs test. He tested positive for a stimulant called nikethamide, and was given a nine-month ban although the ITF accepted that he had taken it inadvertently. Cilic had been taking Coramine glucose tablets, which did not contravene the Wada code. But, as the Daily Telegraph reports, Cilic's supply ran out during the Monte Carlo Masters. "He sent his mother down to the pharmacy to buy another packet, but did not realise that the French version of the product contained different chemicals." The ban was later reduced from nine to four months.

Ivanisevic raised his game

Also in 2013 Cilic appointed Ivanisevic as his coach after splitting with Brett. He also used the time away from the tennis tour while banned to improve his game. But working with Ivanisevic led to a new approach "with the former Wimbledon champion finally persuading his charge to use his natural attacking gifts" according to The Guardian. Cilic praised his new coach for offering "a very relaxed atmosphere, besides extremely huge knowledge... The help he brought to me, I feel that the fun is the best spice of everything, that I think collects all the other pieces together. Every day with him is extremely fun.