Marin Cilic defeated Argentinean Diego Schwartzmann, otherwise last years ATP tournament winner, with 6-1, 7-6 (7) after 99 minutes of play on Saturday in Istanbul during the semi finals.
This is the first ATP finals for Čilić in 2017, and the 28th of his career. It seemed that the Croatian player would have a very easy time during the match, as after a very convincing first set, he built a 4-0 advantage in the second set. However, Schwartzmann evened up the two breaks against him and came to 4-4, only to see Čilić make another break and serve for the finals. But, just like with the previous two games on his service, Marin did not make it to the game or match point, Jutarnji List reported on May 6, 2017.
He did manage to keep his service when he was down 5-6, and took the decision into tie-break in which the Argentinean was leading 6-4, but did not make use of two set points, nor the third at 7-6. After reaching the match point, Čilić waited for the Argentinean to make a mistake and was victorious.
“At the beginning of the week my goal was to reach the finals. I did so by playing good tennis. I hope to do more of that in the finals,” said Čilić after defeating the 46th ranked player, ahead of the Sunday finals where he will play the better in the match between Canadian Miloš Raonić and Serb Viktor Troicki.
Čilić is on par with Raonić in mutual duels at 1-1, while against Troicki he leads 6-5.
