Its been no less than 18 years since Cilic won his first trophy, the longest span in ATP Challenger Tour history, surpassing Andy Murray’s previous record of 17 years and eight months (2005 Aptos – 2023 Aix-en-Provence).
In front of a full crowd at the Eurofirms Girona - Costa Brava in northeast Spain, the 36-year-old triumphed over Denmark’s Elmer Moller 6-3, 6-4 in the clay-court final.
The young Dane, however, fought valiantly throughout the encounter but Cilic erased all eight break points faced in the final to become the second-oldest Croatian to win a Challenger title (Ivo Karlovic, 39, 2018 Calgary.)
Elmer Moller can, however take comfort in the fact that he he will move up several places in the world rankings, which will be updated on Monday. Here he will be ranked number 139. Before the tournament, he was number 156.