Marin Cilic roots out Andreas Seppi to reach the semi-finals – St. Petersburg open 2011
World number 22, Marin Cilic of Croatia, had a rough ride before overcoming his 52nd ranked opponent, Andreas Seppi of Italy, in the quarter-final of the St. Petersburg Open on Friday evening.
Fourth seeded in the tournament, Cilic toiled hard for two hours and twenty eight minutes of play to wrap up victory in three sets, 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-4, booking a berth in the semi-finals of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event.
The local crowd at the Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex in Saint Petersburg, Russia, witnessed a brilliant turnaround from the fourth seeded Croat, who recovered from being one set down to come out as the winner in the end. Cilic displayed his steely nerves once again to keep his impressive record against Seppi, whom he has already defeated twice earlier this year. Their last meeting was held at Montreal Masters, where Cilic won in straight sets. His Friday’s win improved his head-to-head lead by 5-3 against the Italian.
The fourth seed cracked in 13 thudding aces in the matchup and secured 51 out of 61 first serve points in the matchup to come out as the winner. Seppi closely followed him with 49 first serve points but it was just a matter of time that the Italian missed out a couple of opportunities in game to finish on the losing side.
Both contestants registered one serve break apiece in the matchup. The first break points conversion of the day came in the very first game of the match, with Seppi racing away to a 2-0 lead early. The fourth seeded Croat couldn’t recover from such early damage and eventually submitted the opener to Seppi at 4-6.
No serve breaks were seen in the following set, with the two men toiling hard to get the better of one another. A tie breaker round came into play, which also went to the wire before Cilic stung a crucial mini-break to clinch the set at 7-6(8), to remain alive in the competition. The fourth seed then broke his opponent in the ninth game of the final set to cruise out of the contest at 6-4, moving into the final four.
Cilic will meet the fifth seeded home favourite, Mikhail Youzhny, in the semi-finals to battle it out for a place in his fourth ATP World Tour final of the current year. Youzhny was successful against the unseeded Frenchman, Adrian Mannarino, in the round of eight to make it to the semi-finals of the tournament.
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