Tipsarevic To Meet Cilic In St. Petersburg Final

© St. Petersburg OpenCilic advanced to his fourth final of the season on Saturday.

Second seed Janko Tipsarevic advanced to his second straight final on the ATP World Tour, dismissing No. 7 seed Alex Bogomolov Jr. 6-2, 6-1 at the St. Petersburg Open on Saturday, further boosting his chances of qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

The Serbian dictated play with his return, winning 55 per cent of Bogomolov Jr.’s service points to break the American five times in the match. Tipsarevic dropped serve just once to clinch the semi-final meeting in one hour and 17 minutes, improving his season record to a 52-22 mark. He and Bogomolov Jr. were meeting for the first time in seven years, after Bogomolov Jr. won their first FedEx ATP Head 2 Head meeting in Tokyo in 2004.

World No. 13 Tipsarevic is aiming to lift his third trophy of the year and second in as many weeks after topping countryman Viktor Troicki in the first all-Serbian final in Moscow last week. He won his first career title in Kuala Lumpur (d. Baghdatis).

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Tipsarevic will try to become the first player to pull off a Russian double when he takes on Marin Cilic in Sunday’s final.

The Croat defeated Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-4 to reach his fourth final in 2011. After taking the opening set, Cilic overcame a 3-0 deficit in the second set, breaking the Russian twice en route to closing out the match in one hour and 23 minutes.

Cilic is bidding to win his first title of the season after finishing runner-up in Marseille (l. to Soderling), Umag, (l. to Dolgopolov) and Beijing (l. to Berdych). All of these finals losses have gone three sets.

The 23 year old owns a 5-1 FedEx ATP Head 2 Head record against Tipsarevic, but the Serb won their most recent encounter at the Sony Ericsson Open in March to end a five-match losing skid to Cilic.