‘Second-line’ players take center stage for U.S. Open men’s final

Not only will Monday night’s men’s singles final of the U.S. Open tennis tournament break new ground for the future of the game. It will also have a rallying cry: Here comes the second line.

Marin Cilic of Croatia, one of the competitors in this stunning matchup with Japan’s Kei Nishikori, referred to it several times in his post-match news conference Saturday.

The “second line” guys, he called them. That obviously includes himself.

By the time Cilic met the media, the men’s singles Saturday Slaughter had been completed. His straight-sets victory over Roger Federer had been preceded by Nishikori’s convincing win over another of men’s tennis royalty, Novak Djokovic.

So Cilic had time to give perspective to the possibility of a changing of the guard at the top in men’s tennis. He said there may be room for more frequent champions — not just Federer, Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, the four who have dominated for so long.

“The competition is getting bigger,” he said. “The guys from the second line are moving closer and they are more often at the later stages of the tournament.

“They are going to get only better, not going to get worse … it’s more opportunities for everybody, the top guys for sure, and the guys from the second line.”

The “second line” in men’s tennis has, for years, served mostly as cannon fodder for the big-name players to get ready for the semifinals and finals of major tournaments against one another. Since 2005, Federer, Djokovic, Nadal or Murray has won all but two of the majors, and in those two — the U.S. Open won by Juan Martin Del Potro in 2009 and this year’s Australian Open won by Stan Wawrinka — one of the Big Four was in the final. Federer lost to Del Potro and Nadal to Wawrinka.

For years, with the big-name men’s players aging — especially Federer, who is 33 — the question of who and when somebody else will step up has been asked often. Monday’s final (2 p.m. PDT) may be an answer, especially if Cilic and Nishikori play a compelling match.

Cilic was seeded No. 14, Nishikori No. 10, both obviously in the group Cilic calls “the second line.”

Cilic is a hard hitter and big server. He is taller and goes for more on his shots. Nishikori is more likely to engage his opponent in longer rallies, although his game recently has added new aggressiveness and power that showed well against Djokovic. Both Nishikori’s fourth-round and quarterfinal victories went five sets and more than four hours.

Interestingly, their respective coaches, both former Grand Slam event winners, are cut out of similar molds to the men they now advise.

Cilic has, as one of his coaches, Goran Ivanisevic, a tall left-hander and big server in his time, who won the 2001 Wimbledon title. Nishikori has as one of his coaches Michael Chang, who made a career out of endurance, great baseline play and long rallies. Chang was 17 when he won the French Open, in a long five-set final against a serve-and-volley specialist, Stefan Edberg.

Ivanisevic and Chang played in the same era. Their head-to-heads had Chang winning six of 10. Only four were two-setters.

If their pupils duplicate some of those battles Monday night, it will speak well for the sport’s “second line.”