Home Hope Dodig To Face 2010 Runner-Up Berrer In Final

© Neja MarkicevicIvan Dodig will contest his first ATP World Tour final.

World No. 84 Ivan Dodig continued his fairytale run at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors Saturday as he held off third seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in just under three hours to reach his first ATP World Tour final.

Dodig’s victory means that Croatia will be represented in the final of the ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard-court tennis tournament for the fifth successive year. Ivan Ljubicic won the trophy in 2006 and Marin Cilic captured back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010

The 26-year-old Dodig had not dropped a set in dismissing, among others, No. 6 seed Marcel Granollers and No. 2 seed Ivan Ljubicic en route to his first ATP World Tour semi-final, but was broken twice as he surrendered the first set to Garcia-Lopez in their first meeting. The right-hander fought back from a 2-4 deficit in the second set, though, to level the match in a tie-break and clinched the decider after breaking serve in the first game.

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In the final Dodig will face eighth seed Michael Berrer, who broke serve three times as he prevailed in an all-German clash with Florian Mayer, 6-1, 6-4, in just 59 minutes. World No. 66 Berrer is bidding to go one better than last year, when he finished runner-up to Cilic in his first ATP World Tour final.

The 30-year-old Berrer has advanced to the final without the loss of a set and improved to a 5-2 match record with his first victory over Mayer in two attempts; his countryman had ended Cilic’s two-year reign in Zagreb in the quarter-finals.

"Zagreb is a very good place for me to be and I enjoy every day that I'm here," said Berrer. "It was quite a quick match - good for tomorrow, I saved some energy for the final. If I play my game it's a lot of pressure for my opponents to deal with. I didn't lose my serve again today. I will be fresh for the final and I'm really looking forward to it.

"It will be my second final here in two years. Ivan is a good player, he's playing at home and it will be challenging. If I play my game, hopefully the result will come."