NEW YORK—Marin Cilic is enjoying the perks that come from being defending champion at the U.S. Open, even if crowd backing is not one of them.
The Croat has received relatively little attention at the event despite winning it a year ago, and playing two five-setters on his way back to the semifinals. He held off Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals, with the Frenchman having most of the crowd behind him while coming from two sets down to force a fifth set.
Cilic, who motioned to spectators to cheer for him as the fifth set got underway, enjoyed the crowd involvement.
"They want to see longer match obviously. That's always like it is," he said. "I didn't mind, actually, them cheering for Jo. In the third set, when he won the third and especially when he held his serve to stay in the match when I had some match points, I just kept my coolness.
"You know, at the end I used a little bit of emotions to pump the crowd at, you know, critical points. But I was, again, you know, in front and they were cheering again for Jo, but that's absolutely normal. It was great, great atmosphere. I really enjoyed the match."
The 26-year-old, rarely demonstrative on court, insisted he is not concerned about who the crowd wants to win.
"At most times when player is affected about these things is when he's nervous or under stress, or he's down with the score or, you know, when things are not going his way... most of the time, 99 percent of the time, I really don't mind," he said.
But he does sense that the way he is perceived has changed with winning the major tournament.
"I felt that it was huge respect from even the tournament and people around and players around. I really felt that, you know, I'm coming differently to the tournament and I'm feeling differently," said Cilic. "I played several matches on the stadium, Arthur Ashe Stadium, and that, I think, there is no bad points, anything about it."
He next plays No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.