Marin Cilic maintained his excellent form at Queens to take out Nick Kyrgios and book his spot in the final.
The Croat, who finished as the runner-up here as well as Wimbledon last year, is one of the most feared grass-court players and showed exactly why as he proved stronger than the Australian No. 1 in the crucial moments in a 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) win after an hour and 26 minutes.
His serve as been almost impenetrable during the week at the Fever-Tree Championships and hes been broken just once in four matches.
Kyrgios – who has served a whopping 98 aces at the tournament – was unable to find a way through and the more experienced 29-year-old advanced to his fourth final at The Queens Club.
Its so special to play here, Cilic said. Ive played great tennis during the week and also last year so its great to be back here and have another shot at the title.
Nick is serving so good and is definitely tough from both ends to get any looks on returns or break points. As expected a couple of points in those tiebreaks made the difference and I was maybe a bit more lucky in those situations and composed.
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When asked about his potential final opponents Novak Djokovic and Jeremy Chardy, he added: Its going to be a great match between Novak and Jeremy.
Jeremy had a great last couple of weeks and is playing very well on grass, hes always extremely dangerous and Novak, its great to see him playing on a good level and definitely its going to be an entertaining match.
Ill be ready for the final and definitely going to give my best for the trophy.
Heading into the match, the pair had shared the victories in their previous two encounters, with Kyrgios winning the most recent in the 2016 final in Marseille – lifting his first ATP World Tour title in the process.
This was Kyrgios first appearance in the semi-finals at The Queens Club, having never won a match prior to this years event, but he had shown good form against Andy Murray, Kyle Edmund and defending champion Feliciano Lopez to advance to this stage.
Cilic was beaten by Lopez in the 2017 final and is now targeting his second title at the Fever-Tree Championships in what will be his fourth final in west London.
The top seed will go on to meet either Novak Djokovic or Jeremy Chardy, who meet later on Saturday.
Unsurprisingly, there were no breaks in the first set – hitting 12 aces between them – and it had to be settled in a tiebreak.
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Cilic stormed through the breaker to wrap up a 7-6 (7-3) lead after 44 minutes.
The first break points of the match came on the Kyrgios serve at 2-2 in the second. Cilic – who has returned well this week as well as looking after his own serve – put pressure on the Australian at 15-40 but Kyrgios kept his nerve to hold.
A second tiebreak followed and a Kyrgios double fault to start it set the tone as the No. 1 seed went on to reach the final.
More: Tennis
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Marin Cilic maintained his excellent form at Queens to take out Nick Kyrgios and book his spot in the final.
The Croat, who finished as the runner-up here as well as Wimbledon last year, is one of the most feared grass-court players and showed exactly why as he proved stronger than the Australian No. 1 in the crucial moments in a 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) win after an hour and 26 minutes.
His serve as been almost impenetrable during the week at the Fever-Tree Championships and hes been broken just once in four matches.
Kyrgios – who has served a whopping 98 aces at the tournament – was unable to find a way through and the more experienced 29-year-old advanced to his fourth final at The Queens Club.
Its so special to play here, Cilic said. Ive played great tennis during the week and also last year so its great to be back here and have another shot at the title.
Nick is serving so good and is definitely tough from both ends to get any looks on returns or break points. As expected a couple of points in those tiebreaks made the difference and I was maybe a bit more lucky in those situations and composed.
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When asked about his potential final opponents Novak Djokovic and Jeremy Chardy, he added: Its going to be a great match between Novak and Jeremy.
Jeremy had a great last couple of weeks and is playing very well on grass, hes always extremely dangerous and Novak, its great to see him playing on a good level and definitely its going to be an entertaining match.
Ill be ready for the final and definitely going to give my best for the trophy.
Heading into the match, the pair had shared the victories in their previous two encounters, with Kyrgios winning the most recent in the 2016 final in Marseille – lifting his first ATP World Tour title in the process.
This was Kyrgios first appearance in the semi-finals at The Queens Club, having never won a match prior to this years event, but he had shown good form against Andy Murray, Kyle Edmund and defending champion Feliciano Lopez to advance to this stage.
Cilic was beaten by Lopez in the 2017 final and is now targeting his second title at the Fever-Tree Championships in what will be his fourth final in west London.
The top seed will go on to meet either Novak Djokovic or Jeremy Chardy, who meet later on Saturday.
Unsurprisingly, there were no breaks in the first set – hitting 12 aces between them – and it had to be settled in a tiebreak.
Advertisement Advertisement
Cilic stormed through the breaker to wrap up a 7-6 (7-3) lead after 44 minutes.
The first break points of the match came on the Kyrgios serve at 2-2 in the second. Cilic – who has returned well this week as well as looking after his own serve – put pressure on the Australian at 15-40 but Kyrgios kept his nerve to hold.
A second tiebreak followed and a Kyrgios double fault to start it set the tone as the No. 1 seed went on to reach the final.
More: Tennis
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