Cilic wins 20th career title in St. Petersburg over Fritz.

Marin Cilic failed to win the 2021 Kremlin Cup last week losing to Karatsev but today in St. Petersburg he was much better defeating Fritz 7-6(3) 4-6 6-4 to lift the trophy.

Marin Cilic has historically played excellent tennis in Russian and this season was no exception. He reached the final last week in Moscow but failed to win it after Karatsev proved simply too good. Today he faced another tricky opponent in Taylor Fritz and the Croatian played much better to win the match in straight sets.

The emergence of Taylor Fritz lately has been something spectacular to watch. Especially considering the American underwent knee surgery in the summer and how he is playing some of the best tennis ever. The first set was an interesting one where Cilic proved better early. He had a 4-2 lead and had a set point at 5-4 before allowing Fritz a comeback.

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The first set winner was decided in the tiebreak and Cilic proved more calm and overall better. The Croatian was serving extremely well and lost only two first-serve points all set long. There was nothing Fritz could do there but he proved much more resilient in the 2nd set. Cilic's serve disappeared a little bit in the 2nd set and that allowed Fritz to break back after he lost his serve.

Fritz was able to win that 2nd set with 6-4 after winning 8 of 10 points on Cilic's 2nd serve. Those woes continued early in the 3rd set as well with the American taking a 3-1 lead. After that, faced with a loss Cilic found some inspiration to battle back. First, he made it 3-3 and after that played even better to ultimately down Fritz with 6-4 in the final one.

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Marvellous Marin 🙌 It's a 20th career title for the Croatian as he triumphs in St. Petersburg! @cilic_marin #spbopen

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