Marin Cilic ousts local favourite Mikhail Youzhny in semi-final – St. Petersburg Open 2011
Top ranked Croat and fourth seed here, Marin Cilic sailed into the final match of the 2011 St. Petersburg as he destroyed 2010 finalist here and local favourite, Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets in their semi-final match on Saturday,
29th October. Taking only eighty three minutes, Cilic registered a simple 6-3, 6-4 win over the Russian securing a berth in the final of the event.
Coming into the match, Cilic had the odds set against him. With the local crowd supporting his opponent, Cilic also had to cater for the 1-5 trail in the pair’s head-to-head score. The pair had last met in the quarterfinal of the
Hamburg event where the Russian had bounced back from a set down to do away with the Croat in three sets. However, this time fighting against considerable odds, Cilic managed an easy win over a tough opponent.
Kicking off their seventh meeting on the courts, Cilic opened serve and put himself on the scoreboard. The pair successfully held their serves in the next two games to put Cilic at a 2-1 advantage. Breaking his opponent in the
fourth game, Cilic took a 3-1 edge extending it to 4-1 on his service. Determined to find a foothold to bounce back, Youzhny broke the Croat in the sixth game to reduce the deficit to 2-4. However, the Russian’s form was short-lived as Cilic returned the favour
and broke back immediately to maintain his three game edge. Continuing to win on their respective serves, Cilic eventually served out the set to clinch a 6-3 win.
Down and definitely out as it eventually seemed, Youzhny failed to make any impact in the second set. The score progressed on even terms between the two players with neither making any headway. Although Youzhny managed to break
the Croat in the second game to take a 3-0 lead, Cilic broke back in the fifth game to bring the scores to even terms. Standing at four games each, Cilic broke Youzhny for the final time in the ninth game before he once more served out the set to clinch a
6-4 win, sealing his straight sets victory.
The hard hitting Croat hit five aces to the Russian’s only one along with a single double fault. Albeit he hit a lower 55 percent on his first serve, he managed to win an impressive 80 percent clinching a total of 67 of 118 points
to move into the final two.
Cilic now moves on ahead to play second seeded Serb, Janko Tipsarevic for a shot at the title here.
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