Cilic crushes Tipsarevic, reaches final

Chennai:

Defending champion Marin Cilic made short work of Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 6-1, 6-3 to storm into the singles final of the ATP Chennai Open here on Saturday.

Asserting his supremacy against the Serb, the World number 14 Croat closed the semifinal match in 84 minutes. This was Tipsarevic's fourth defeat in a row against Cilic.

Cilic now awaits the winner of the other semifinal between third seed Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka and Israeli Dudi Sela.

"I have beaten him here last year in the quarter-finals and then in the Australian Open. I have always been saying that he is one of the strong players but I played to my strength and happy that I was able to win.

"The fans were rooting for him today. I am looking forward to tomorrow's final and then the Australian Open," Cilic said after the match.

The Croat hit some stunning winners, particularly with his booming forehands.

On the other hand, Tipsarevic, who beat local favourite Somdev Devvarman, did not look even his pale shadow today. His served lacked powerhand committed too many unforced errors.

Cilic broke the Serb thrice -- second, fourth and seventh games -- to easily shot into lead but faced some resistance in the second set.

After dropping his serve in the beginning of the second set, Tipsarevic cut down on his errors and the next six games saw an intense fight.

However, that early break had given Cilic the advantage and the lanky Croat served out the match in the ninth game.

In the rain delayed matches last night, India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna made an unexpected exit losing the quarterfinal tie to C Fleming and K Skupski of England 6-4, 3-6, 2-10.

Wawrinka and Y Allegro made short work of Yen Hsun Lu and Tipsarevic 6-2, 6-2.

Early in the singles quarter-final matches, Wawrinka scored a 7-6 (5), 6-4 win over Michael Berrrer of Gremany and Cilic defeated Santiago Giraldo 7-6, 6-1.

Tipsarevic had edged past Thmie De Bakker of the Netherlands 7-5, 7-5.