By Erik Gudris | Saturday, February 20, 2015

 

Marin Cilic withstood a second set comeback from local favorite Benoit Paire to reach his second Marseille final.

Photo Credit: Open 13

Marin Cilic overcame a tricky opponent and a partisan crowd to reach his second Open 13 final in Marseille, France.

The fourth seed Cilic faced off against local favorite and No. 8 seed Benoit Paire in Saturday’s first semifinal. Paire entered just having knocked out top seed Stan Wawrinka in a tight three set battle on Friday.

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Cilic will face Nick Kyrgios in tomorrow's final. Kyrgios cracked 15 aces beating Tomas Berdych, 6-4, 6-2, to reach his second career final. 

That effort appeared to have some impact on Paire in the opening set. A poor drop shot from Paire allowed Cilic to break in the opening game. Soon an out of sorts Paire quickly found himself trailing by a double break 3-0.

Though Paire would get one of the breaks back, Cilic again broke later for 5-2 when Paire sent a backhand just long. Cilic would close out the set with a big serve for 6-2.

Paire got things going in the second set backed up with better serving and cleaner play. The Frenchman, cheered on by the local crowd, kept in touch with Cilic throughout the set. Paire held a set point at 5-4. Cilic erased it though with a solid serve backed up by a forehand winner.

Eventually the set entered a tiebreak that went back and forth between both men. Paire secured a mini-break and didn’t let go. A potent backhand return from Paire soon gave him the set 7-6 (3).

With Paire now fired up along with the crowd, it was up to Cilic to weather the storm.

At 2-all in the final set, Cilic served up a costly fourth double fault. That gave Paire a break point. But Cilic, with solid net play, eventually closed out the game 3-2.

Cilic pounced on his own break point opportunities later in the set. On his third break point in the next game, Cilic converted for a 4-2 lead. He then served an ace to extend his lead to 5-2.

Paire, who slipped during an extended rally in the previous game, limped noticeably in the final game. Though Paire managed to hold serve for 5-3, it only delayed the inevitable. Cilic, who fired off 22 total aces, served out the final game to love thus closing out the tough 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-3 victory.

“He’s an extrememly dangerous player,” Cilic said about Paire after the win. “Today was not easy I was not returning too good today. I adjusted today and I was serving really good today.”

Cilic is now back into the Marseille final since reaching the same stage in 2011.