Roger Federer wary of Marin Cilic as Swiss great eyes eighth Wimbledon title

Roger Federer’s eighth Wimbledon title may appear to be destiny but the man himself knows Marin Cilic is perfectly capable of spoiling the party.

Federer has made serene progress through the fortnight and watched all his usual major rivals fall by the wayside.

And on that occasion in New York, he was stunned by Juan Martin del Potro.

“Thank God I’ve played also guys who were not called Rafa, Andy or Novak in the past,” he said.

“From that standpoint, I don’t want to say it’s more relaxed going into it, because I have a good head-to-head record against Marin, even though the matches were extremely close.

“But it’s not like we’ve played against each other 30 times. You don’t feel like you have to reinvent the wheel. It’s more straightforward. It’s a nice change, but it doesn’t make things easier.”

Cilic has only won one of his previous seven meetings against Federer, but that stands out as one of the more remarkable performances of recent years.

Croatian Cilic simply overpowered Federer in the semi-finals of the US Open in 2014 and did the same against Kei Nishikori in the final to gatecrash the grand slam winners’ circle.

Cilic knows he has his work well and truly cut out, saying: “Obviously they set the bar really high at most of the grand slams, but this one especially.

“Definitely it’s great for me to be in the final of a grand slam again. I’ve felt that my level of tennis in the last several weeks is really on a high level, and that has given me a lot of consistency with my mindset.

“But still it’s a final. It’s never easy to deal with it. You never know how your emotions are going to be when you enter that Centre Court.”