Cilic Triumphs In St. Petersburg Over Tipsarevic

© St. Petersburg OpenCilic captured his fifth title Sunday in St. Petersburg.

Fourth seed Marin Cilic defeated No. 2 seed Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to win his first title of the season on Sunday at the St. Petersburg Open. The victory denied Tipsarevic his opportunity to move up to ninth place in the battle for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.

After splitting the first two sets, Cilic took command in the third set, breaking the World No. 13 twice to win the final four games, claiming victory in two hours and 17 minutes. The Croat improved to 6-1 against Tipsarevic, and avenged his loss to the Serbian at the Sony Ericsson Open this year.

"It was a very good match at a high level. I managed to push myself into a higher gear in the last set," said Cilic. "I was close in my other finals [this year] and I think I learned a little bit from them. Today, that pushed me and in the third set, I played my best tennis of the season."

Having finished runner-up in Marseille (l. to Soderling), Umag (l. to Dolgopolov) and Beijing (l. to Berdych), Cilic won his first title since repeating as champion in Zagreb last year. The win gives the 23 year old his fifth title and third indoors.

Tipsarevic was bidding to become the first player to pull off the Russian double, after topping countryman Viktor Troicki in Moscow last week in the first all-Serbian final.

"Marin deserved to win. He was the better player today," assessed Tipsarevic. "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. I didn't manage to make a break and after that, I went completely down."

Currently at No. 10 in the South African Airways 2011 ATP Year-To-Date Rankings, Tipsarevic dropped to a 2-5 mark in ATP World Tour finals.