Berdych and Cilic in China Open final

Written by: Global Chick on 9th October 2011

Berdych and Cilic in China Open final

Croatian Marin Cilic returns the ball to his compatriot Ivan Ljubicic at their semi-final match in the China Open Tennis tournament in Beijing, China 08 October 2011. Cilic won 6-4, 6-3. EPA/ADRIAN BRADSHAW |

The No. 3 seed Tomas Berdych will meet unseeded Marin Cilic in the final of the 2011 China Open.

Marin Cilic ousted fellow countryman and doubles partner Ivan Ljubicic 6-4 6-3 in the Beijing semi-final. This is Cilic first win over Ljubicic. The World No. 25 is looking for his first title in 2011 after two failed attempts to win a title this year in Marseille and Umag.

The Croat reached the final of this tournament back in 2009 when he lost to Novak Djokovic in the final. “To be a second time in the Beijing final is great feeling coming after this summer. I played some great tournaments, and I mentioned that I was in pretty good form. That pleases me a lot, that I know when I play well that I can beat those guys and that my tennis is on a good level,” Cilic said.

Ljubicic and Cilic teamed up together in the doubles after their singles encounter to face Horia Tecau of Romania and Robert Lindstedt of Sweden. The Croatian team failed to reach the doubles finals and fell to the Romanian/Swedish team in the third set match tiebreak.

Tomas Berdych is also through to the final after defeating top seed Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in three sets 6-4 4-6 6-1. The Czech player had chances to take the match in just two sets but failed to break serve despite having break points at 6-4 4-3. Berdych broke Tsonga in the fourth game in the final set and dominated from there.

“The most difficult part, I would say that was the end of the second set. I think I was in pretty good chance. I had breakpoints to break his serve. I made a close shot to the baseline and unfortunately it was out,” Berdych said.

The final will be an important event for Berdych. I he wins he will be ranked number seven in the Battle of London rankings and increase his chances of qualifying. “This match could really change my season from good season to really good season,” said Berdych.

The number three seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic battled past the world number one team the Bryans to reach the China Open doubles final. Llodra and Zimonjic won 3-6 7-6 (4) 10-3. This is their sixth ATP World Tour final this year.