Cilic takes out title in St Petersburg

Written by: Staff on 31st October 2011

Cilic takes out title in St Petersburg

Marin Cilic of Croatia holds the trophy and celebrates his victory over Janko Tipsarevich of Serbia during their final match at the St. Petersburg Open ATP tennis tournament in St.Petersburg, Russia, 30 October 2011. EPA/ANATOLY MALTSEV |

Croat Marin Cilic defeated the number four seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 6-3 3-6 6-2 in the final of St Petersburg Open. This is Cilic’s first title this year after reaching three finals this year in Marseille, Umag and Beijing.

“It was a very good match at a high level. I managed to push myself into a higher gear in the last set,” Cilic said. After one set all Cilic stepped up in the third set breaking Tipsarevic’s serve twice to take home the match and the title.

Yesterday’s runner up Tipsarevic would have moved into the ninth spot on the year-to-date ranking if had won the St Petersburg Open final. Instead he is now in the 10^th spot behind Nicolas Almagro. Three spots are still remaining to be filled for the event.

“Marin deserved to win. He was the better player today. In order to beat Marin, you need to play a certain style of game and for me it was really tough. I gave everything I had in the second set and beginning of the third set,” Tipsarevic said.

The number three seeded duo Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins claimed the St Petersburg Open doubles crown on Sunday in a tough match against Russian wildcards Mikhail Elgin and Alexander Kudryavtsev 6-3 6-7 (5) 10-8.

Fleming is the defending Champion here but he won the tournament here with a different partner last year. The Brits had a surprise win over the top seeds Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek in the semi-finals. “We’ve played Alexander and Mikhail about four times in the past 12 months, and all were very close matches, so we knew they would play very well and bring a high level. They’re good tennis players so it was a tough match and we’re happy to get this one,” Hutchins said.

Fleming and Hutchins have had a great year reaching the quarterfinals of both Wimbledon and the US Open. “We’re very happy to win and be the Champions of St Petersburg this year. It’s really quite big for us. It’s a nice tournament and a great city, so we love to come and play here,” Fleming said.

Topics: Janko Tipsarevic, Marin Cilc