ATP World Tour star Marin Cilic has set up a foundation with the goal of supporting educational projects which will give young people improved access to education.

“I decided to start the Foundation several months ago, along with my manager, Vincent,” Cilic said. “An organisation in Croatia that I helped works with kids in orphanages. The orphans are helped until they are 18, and then from 18 they are more or less on their own. They have to start making money, they can’t go to university and make the best out of their potential. That’s one of the things I was trying to help with last year, raising awareness and helping the kids who are 13 and 14 to save up some funds, so that when they are older and on their own, they can cover expenses and go to university.

“The first launch will be in London on 25 June. We are organising an event just before the start of Wimbledon. We’ll have a dinner and small presentation. At that event we will launch the Foundation and start to build from there. The biggest targets are definitely going to be trying to help some organisations in Croatia, but also abroad in Monaco and different parts of Europe. There are, unfortunately, a lot of things happening in the world that are tragic, so we are also going to look into that and decide if we are able to help in some situations.”

In addition to a gala dinner, Cilic has a few other event ideas.

“It’s great to be an athlete and a tennis player, so you can organise exhibitions and events, dinners where you can raise money. Goran [Ivanisevic] is my coach as well and he’s very popular in the exhibition world! People like to watch him. So there are going to be different kinds of events and hopefully it’s going to work well. In the past I did things like this a couple of times and it was always very welcome by the players. I have good relationships with Novak, Rafa, Berdych, Milos – who last year came to my clinic in Monte-Carlo. Events are always very helpful in different countries as well.

“We’re going to try to organise some small events for the kids. We’re going to try and find some good talents and offer some tennis scholarships for the kids who are trying to become professional tennis players and help them with expenses and to have some funds for training and travelling.

“It’s a blessing when you are successful and can also give back to the community and make people happy. We will try to help as many people as possible.”

Gala Dinner Information

Saturday 25th June 2016 – 8.30 pm

ANGLER RESTAURANT – 7th Floor

South Place Hotel, 3 South Place, London EC2M 2AF

£ 5.000 Table for 10 guests

RESERVATION by Friday June, 10th, 2016 at m.cilic1988@gmail.com

Monday singles and doubles finals are on tap at the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy after persistent rain showers washed out play on Sunday.

The action is scheduled to resume at 9:30am on Centre Court.

The start of the doubles final in Bucharest was initially pushed back two hours, before home hopes and top seeds Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau captured the first set 7-5 over Chris Guccione and Andre Sa. The skies would close once again, with ATP supervisor Gerry Armstrong eventually calling play at 5:50pm local time.

Tecau is bidding for a fourth title on home soil with a fourth different partner, after prevailing with Robert Lindstedt in 2012, Max Mirnyi in ’13 and Jean-Julien Rojer in ’14. Victory would see the Romanian claim the 300th match win of his career.

In the singles final, 22-year-old Frenchman Lucas Pouille is hoping to bring home his first ATP World Tour trophy when he faces Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco. Pouille has dropped only one set in four matches in Bucharest, upsetting three seeded opponents en route to the final. Verdasco, meanwhile, is appearing in his 20th ATP World Tour final and seeking a seventh title. The 32 year old is trying to become the second straight Spaniard to lift the Bucharest trophy after Guillermo Garcia-Lopez triumphed last year.

It is the first Monday finish on the ATP World Tour since October, when Tomas Berdych topped Garcia-Lopez at a waterlogged Shenzhen Open.

#NextGen star Jared Donaldson is still a teenager, but he’s been taking an adult approach to developing his game for continued success on the ATP Challenger Tour.

The 19-year-old American has reached his first ATP Challenger Tour final of the year at this week’s $50,000 event in Savannah, Georgia. After prevailing in two intense three-set battles on Thursday and Friday, with the latter being a win over No. 4 seed Gerald Melzer, Donaldson saved his best tennis so far this week for his semi-final against No. 2 seed Donald Young. Striking his forehand with authority and controlling the tempo of the baseline rallies, Donaldson handily prevailed over his more experienced opponent, 6-4, 6-3.

Perhaps the most impressive part of Donaldson’s performance against Young was his return of serve. Having once been one of the weaker parts of his game, he continually hit Young’s first serves close to the baseline and brought the rallies back to a neutral point. Donaldson clinched the match by blasting a return winner on his first match point.

“I’ve struggled on my return at times and felt like I wasn’t giving myself enough opportunities to put balls in play and break guys,” admitted Donaldson. “I’m playing more aggressively lately, but in the past I may have done it in a way where I was going for too much. Now I’m doing it in a way that has more spin and margin so I can hit those shots consistently.”

Donaldson also won an impressive 87 per cent of points when he got his first serve into play. Having attempted to revamp with his serve in the past without success, the American said that going back to basics has gotten the shot back to where he wanted it to be.

“I was serving amazingly well in Futures tournaments when I was 17, but when I started trying to hit the ball a little harder, my fundamentals started getting a little erratic,” said Donaldson. “I’ve felt more confident in my first serve and made some adjustments after the Challenger last week in Sarasota. My second serve can still be a little shaky, so I just need to make sure I don’t get too passive with it and keep up my racquet speed.”

Donaldson is now within striking distance of winning the USTA’s French Open Wild Card Challenge and could clinch it with a strong result in next week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Tallahassee. Although the American said he would be thrilled to make his main draw debut in Paris, it’s far from his mind as he focuses on the championship match against either No. 1 seed Denis Kudla or Bjorn Fratangelo

“The wild card is more of an afterthought. I’ve gotten my fair share of wild cards over the years and they’re nice to have, but I’d honestly rather make the main draw at Roland Garros by going through qualifying,” said Donaldson. “It’s a nice bonus for doing well in these Challengers, but you have to worry about the match at hand instead of thinking about chasing ranking points and opportunities. It’s impossible to focus otherwise.”

Second seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan reached the Barcelona Open BancSabadell final for the fourth time, ousting Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 on Saturday.

The Bryans advanced to their 164th tour-level doubles final and second in three weeks, after lifting their first trophy of the year in Houston. They previously prevailed in Barcelona in 2003 and ’08, while finishing runner-up in 2011.

The American twins carry a 25-16 record in clay finals into Sunday’s title match, where they will face wild cards Pablo Cuevas and Marcel Granollers. The Uruguyan/Spanish duo overcame a two-hour rain delay to defeat Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez 2-6, 6-4, 10-3.

Bidding to become the first home grown doubles champion at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona since 1997, when Alberto Berasategui and Jordi Burillo triumphed, Granollers is appearing in his 26th final (10-15 record) on the ATP World Tour and fifth with Cuevas (2-2). Cuevas, meanwhile is vying for his sixth title in 12 finals.

The home-country favorites will have a chance to become the home-country champions on Sunday at the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Bucharest. Romanians Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau beat Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 on Saturday to advance to the final in Bucharest. The No. 1 seeds won nearly 70 per cent of their first-serve points and broke their opponents three times in the win.

“It was tough,” Mergea said. “We lost the first set after having seven or eight break points. Our opponents became more confident.”

Tecau, though, said a close semi-finals match should help them on Sunday. “It’s good for us to face such tough situations. After a 6-3, 6-3 victory, you don’t think too much,” he said. “It benefits the team to have close matches, that’s helping us to see what we have to improve.”

Mergea and Tecau will go for their first ATP World Tour title together against Chris Guccione of Australia and Andre Sa of Brazil. Mergea has won five tour-level doubles titles and Tecau has 27 doubles titles. Guccione/Sa will be playing in their third ATP World Tour final together. Last year, the duo won the Aegon Open Nottingham and reached the final of the Shenzhen Open.

One week after completing his ninth title run at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Rafael Nadal will vie for a ninth crown at another happy hunting ground.

The top seeded Spaniard will look to dethrone two-time defending champion Kei Nishikori on Sunday after downing Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-3 in the semis of the Barcelona Open BancSabadell. Bidding for an unprecedented ninth victory on home soil, he is hoping to lift his first trophy in three years, adding to crowns in 2005-’09 and 2011-’13 at the Real Club Tenis Barcelona-1899.

“Tomorrow I will play against one of the world’s best players and it will be complicated,” said Nadal. “I have to play a great match to win the final.” 

Most Titles At A Single Tournament (Open Era)

Nadal had his entire shotmaking arsenal on display against Kohlschreiber, firing 18 winners and claiming 80 per cent of first serve points. He denied his lone break point faced, while capitalising on three of eight on the German’s serve.

Nadal broke for a 4-2 lead in the first set when a Kohlschreiber forehand clipped the tape and sailed long. The Spaniard continued to apply the pressure in the second, and after failing to convert on three break points in the fifth game, he took his fourth chance for 4-3 and another to seal the victory two games later. He struck a deep return at Kohlschreiber’s feet and a backhand winner to the open court to emerge victorious on his first match point after one hour and 32 minutes.

The World No. 5 advanced to his 101st tour-level final, where he will look to continue his winning ways against Nishikori. Nadal owns an 8-1 advantage in their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry, with their lone final encounter also coming on Spanish soil, in Madrid two years ago.

Should Nadal prevail on Sunday, he would earn a record-tying 49th career clay-court crown, pulling level with Guillermo Vilas.

Most Clay-Court Titles (Open Era)