Cilic Charges Into Final, Inside London Cut
Cilic Charges Into Final, Inside London Cut
Croatian will try to win his 16th career title against Nishikori
Saturday was a very good day for Marin Cilic.
By winning his semi-final match at the Swiss Indoors Basel, the Croat played himself into his second ATP World Tour final of the season and inside the cut to make the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be held 13-20 Nov. at The O2 in London.
The former US Open champion advanced by producing emotional tennis against serve/volleying lefty Mischa Zverev, who’s finding his best tennis after years of injuries. Cilic saved six of seven break points to come back from a set down and prevail against the 29-year-old 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Cilic will meet third seed Kei Nishikori in Sunday’s final. The Japanese leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 7-4 but Cilic won the last time they met in a final, at Flushing Meadows in 2014. The Croatian will be going for his second title of the season, having won his maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown in August in Cincinnati (d. Murray).
The 6’6” right-hander also will be attempting to solidify his position among London contenders. With his semi-final victory, Cilic gained 120 more points and leapfrogged Tomas Berdych to take the No. 9 spot in the Emirates ATP Race To London. The top eight players at the end of the season will qualify for the event. (Rafael Nadal currently occupies the No. 7 spot but will not compete again until 2017.)
View The Emirates ATP Race To London
Should Cilic win Sunday’s final, he’d gain 200 more points and would have a total of 3,090, only 115 points behind No. 8 Dominic Thiem heading into the BNP Paribas Masters, the final tournament of the regular season. Almost half – seven – of Cilic’s 15 titles have come indoors, with his most recent indoors title coming last year at Moscow (d. Bautista Agut).
Cilic has competed at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals one other time, in 2014. He went 0-3 in the round-robin stage.
FINAL PREVIEW: The Swiss Indoors Basel championship on Sunday features two of the bright stars on the ATP World Tour as No. 4 seed Marin Cilic takes on No. 3 seed Kei Nishikori. This is the 12th meeting between the two with Nishikori holding a 7-4 advantage although they each have won 16 sets. This is also their second meeting in a final. At the 2014 US Open, Cilic defeated Nishikori in straight sets to capture his first Grand Slam crown. Both players have served well en route to the final, holding a combined 87 of 90 games. The winner will earn his second ATP World Tour title of the season.
Cilic, who has held serve 42 of 43 games in his four matches, moved to No. 9 in the Emirates ATP Race to London by beating Mischa Zverev on Saturday. The 28-year-old Croat holds the final position for the season finale by 10 points over Tomas Berdych. If Cilic wins the title, he will increase the margin to 210 points going into the final ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the season in Paris, which begins on Monday. No. 9 is the cut for qualification at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals with Rafael Nadal out for the season. Cilic is appearing in his fourth ATP World Tour final of the season (1-2) and 27th in his career (15-11). His lone title came at ATP Masters 1000 Cincinnati in August (d. Murray).
Nishikori is appearing in his fifth ATP World Tour final of the year (1-3). The 26-year-old Japanese star has won a personal-best 56 matches this season and has qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the third straight year. Nishikori reached the Basel final five years ago in his debut (d. No. 1 Djokovic in SF, l. to No. 4 Federer) and he has held serve 45 of 47 games (saving 13 of 15 break points). He saved two match points in his three-set semi-final win over Gilles Muller. Nishikori, who captured the Memphis title for the fourth year in a row in February, is making his 20th appearance in a final (11-8).