Marin Cilic hammered Japan's Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 on Monday to win the US Open, following in the footsteps of his coach and 2001 Wimbledon winner Goran Ivanisevic.
Cilic, seeded 14, took less than two hours to win as he totally dominated 10th seed Nishikori. It was the 300th match win of Cilic's career.
The victory marks the third time in six years in Flushing Meadows that a new grand slam champion has lifted the trophy after Juan Del Potro in 2009 and Andy Murray in 2012.
"This came from a lot of hard work, especially over the last year," said Cilic, who served an administrative ban last season for accidentally ingesting banned glucose supplements. He used the four-month pause to hire Ivanisevic and get to work on improving his big game.
"My team, especially Goran, has brought something special to my game. The most important thing was the joy of tennis, going out and always having fun," he said.
The 25-year-old finished with 17 aces and 35 winners, breaking Nishikori five times and saving eight of the nine break points he faced.
"I've enjoyed my tennis so much here, I think I played the best of my life," said the Croatian.
"You never know when nerves will kick in. We were both nervous at the start, but once we got going it was better. I was really pleased to do so well."
It was the first grand slam final since the 2005 Australian Open without Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer or Andy Murray in the mix. And it was only the third time in the past 39 majors - nearly 10 years - that none of the top four men has won.
The others were the 2009 US Open when Del Potro won, and the 2014 Australian Open, when Stan Wawrinka took the prize.
After beating France's Gilles Simon in five sets to reach the quarter-finals, Cilic then dispatched three top 10 opponents - Tomas Berdych, five-time champion Federer and Nishikori in straight sets.
Nishikori admitted he had an off day. "He was playing really well, I couldn't play my best tennis. Congratulations to Marin for his first title," Nishikori said.
"It was a tough day, but I'm happy in getting to my first major final. I hung in for two weeks. I'm sorry I could not get a trophy today."
Cilic joins Wawrinka as a first-time winner of a major this season. It was the fist New York final between two players making grand slam final debuts since 1997 when Patrick Rafter defeated Greg Rusedski.
Cilic dominated on serve as the Croatian seized the momentum early in the opening set and never looked back against his Japanese opponent, who had knocked out world number one Djokovic in the semi-finals.
Cilic collected the opening set in 33 minutes and continued on pace in the second. The Croatian missed a forehand to lose his serve in the eighth game, but broke straight back with a sizzling winner to the corner to capture a two-sets-to-love lead.
In the third Cilic continued to rampage, breaking for 3-1 and saving three break points - one with his 17th ace - to earn a 5-2 lead. He secured the win of his career a game later after double-faulting on a first match point but firing a winner seconds later.
Cilic collapsed to the court in joy, then collected himself and shook Nishikori's hand before making his way to his player box for hugs all around.
