The beginning of the 2015 season may be knocking on the door, but for Marin Cilic, the start of his 2015 campaign will have to wait.  The Croat was slated to compete in next week’s event in Brisbane, but he has reportedly lost the proverbial race against time to have his right shoulder sufficiently healed and ready to go for competition.  There is no word yet on Cilic’s odds of competing at the Australian Open, but whether he does or does not, his withdrawal from Brisbane signals an ominous start to his year.

Cilic is no stranger to coping with this right shoulder injury.  It has plagued him for the last several months, and yet, he still managed to win his maiden major title at the US Open and scoop up the crown in Moscow in October.  But that injury also hampered the latter stages of his 2014 season.  Cilic had to pull out of a few events, endured early defeats, and lost all three of his matches in his first trip to the ATP World Tour Finals.  It was certainly an uninspiring way to end the year, so no doubt he would have been eager to erase those ugly memories from his mind by notching some wins under his belt early in 2015.

Aside from the possibility of earning a few victories, Cilic was probably also keen to hit the ground running early if for no other reason than to get some match play in before heading to Melbourne.  Every player, even the legends, admits to feeling butterflies in the stomach when contesting the opening round of a major.  Those nerves are further compounded if that opening round happens to also be the first match of the season.  Because of its early slot in the tennis calendar, the Australian Open is frequently the site for both the first Grand Slam match and overall first match of the season for many players.  Some players are content with accepting that reality.  Some are even comfortable with it.  But for a man like Cilic, who is not exactly a pillar of consistency, going into the Australian Open with zero match play could be very problematic.

There is another wrinkle that makes potentially going into Melbourne cold even more devastating to Cilic’s chances of posting a deep run, however.  He has faced the pressure that comes with contesting the opening round of a major.  Should it come to it, he also knows what it means to go into a slam with little-to-no preparation.  But this season, he must take on a new challenge.  That challenge is managing the increased weight of expectations that comes with being a Grand Slam champion.  A number of players have struggled under the weight of those expectations, and as previously noted, Cilic has never been a particularly solid player as is.  It is essential that he prove to himself and the rest of the field that he is comfortable wearing the tag of a Grand Slam singles champion if he wants to have any hope of once again enjoying the same kind of success he did a few months ago at the US Open.

Of course, with or without Brisbane, or one of the other warm-ups for the Australian Open for that matter, Cilic could still put together a fantastic result in Melbourne.  He proved in New York that he has the necessary weaponry to go all the way at a major.  But no amount of weaponry or prior experience is a substitute for match play, and any injury, even just a niggling one, will hamper the efforts of even the greatest of players.  Suffice it to say, Cilic is starting off 2015 in an inauspicious way, and it will be interesting to see how he copes with this initial setback and what it means for his immediate prospects.