Federer aims at Cilic, 20th major

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA » Roger Federer and Marin Cilic found themselves on vacation in the Maldives at the same time back in November and tried to give each other space for a couple days, given it was at the tail-end of a long tennis season and both needed to decompress.

Then Cilic got in touch with Federer and asked if he wanted to practice.

“No coaches, no nothing, just the two of us on the court hitting balls. It was just nice and laid back,” Federer said. “To get to know the man behind the tennis player, I guess.”

Fast-forward a couple of months and the two will be on opposite sides of the net again, facing each other in the final of the Australian Open with far more at stake — Federer will be trying to add to his record Grand Slam haul with a 20th title, while Cilic is bidding for his second.

Federer joked that maybe it wasn’t coincidence both of them were playing so well at the first major of the new year. “I told (Cilic) the practice in the tropics helped us get to the finals,” the 36-year-old Swiss star said with a laugh after his semifinal win over Hyeon Chung on Friday night.

Federer, of course, has been in this position many times before, with or without off-season hitting in paradise. He’ll be appearing in his seventh final at the Australian Open and he has a fairly decent record at this stage of the tournament — five trophies, one silver runner-up plate (when he lost to Rafael Nadal in 2009).

He’s also coming into Sunday’s match with a huge amount of confidence after ending his 4½-year Grand Slam title drought on the same court at Melbourne Park last year — a victory that set in motion his best season since 2009 with a record eighth title at Wimbledon and a No. 2 ranking to finish the year.