Former U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic has won his first ATP Tour title in almost three years, becoming the lowest-ranked men’s winner in the Open Era (since 1968) in the process.

Cilic, 35, beat the sixth seed and home favorite Zhang Zhizhen 7-6(5), 7-6(5) at the ATP 250 Hangzhou Open in China, having started the tournament ranked world No. 777.

Due to rain delays and rescheduling, he was ranked world No. 373 by the weekly rankings update on Monday September 23, and the ATP updated his ranking to No. 212 on the day of his title win, for a total ascent of 565 places in two weeks.

Cilic was given a wildcard for the tournament, which was making its debut on the ATP calendar. Speaking on court, trophy in hand, the 2018 Australian Open finalist and 2014 U.S. Open champion said that the last 20 months, in which he has returned from knee surgery, had been difficult.

“I’ve lost my ranking, I didn’t play too much,” Cilic said.

““I hope I made it worthwhile during the whole week.”

Cilic is the lowest-ranked winner of an ATP title by ranking at the start of an event since Lleyton Hewitt, who won the Adelaide title aged 16 and ranked world No. 550 in 1998.

Three unranked women’s players have won titles since the inception of the WTA rankings in 1973: Chris O’Neil at the 1978 Australian Open; Mirjana Lucic-Baroni at the 1997 Croatian Ladies Open and Kim Clijsters at the 2009 U.S. Open.

On the same day as Cilic’s win, Shang Juncheng, 19, went one better than compatriot Zhang by winning the 250-level event in Chengdu, for his first ATP title. Shang beat top seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, 7-6(4), 6-1.

(Zhe Ji / Getty Images)