No. 1 seed and defending champion Marin Cilic needed just 77 minutes to eliminate Evgeny Donskoy 6-3, 6-1 and advance to the final of the Kremlin Cup by Bank of Moscow on Saturday. The Croat finished with 10 aces, won 80 per cent of first serve points and saved the lone break point faced.

It was a first career ATP World Tour semi-final for the 25-year-old Donskoy. The wild card became the first Russian since 2011 to reach the final four in Moscow (Davydenko).

Donskoy had not dropped a set en route to the semi-finals, but was broken at 3-4 after saving three break points and saw Cilic serve out the set in the following game. He swept the final six games of the match to advance to his first final of 2015 and remain in striking distance of a spot at the Barclays APT World Tour Finals. Currently 13^th in the Emirates ATP Race To London, he could move to 11^th by capturing the title.

On Sunday, Cilic will take on No. 2 seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who downed fourth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-4 in 80 minutes, in a rematch of last year’s final. Bautista Agut is also through to his first final this season, having previously gone 0-5 in semi-finals. It will be the pair’s second FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. Cilic prevailed 6-4, 6-4 in Moscow exactly 12 months ago.