By Anand Philar, IANS
Chennai : Fourth seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia played it safe and smart to outclass young pretender Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-2, 6-3 in the semi-final of the $436,000 ATP Chennai Open tennis tournament here Saturday.
Youzhny awaits the winner of the second semi-final between World No.2 and top seed Rafael Nadal and two-time winner Carlos Moya.
While 25-year-old Youzhny’s win tonight was to be expected, he came through with surprising ease against the 71st ranked Cilic, 19, who went down rather tamely, dropping his serve twice in each set.
Both players appeared jaded, having completed their respective quarter-final matches in the early hours of Saturday following rain delay.
Cilic looked a different player from the one who beat fifth seed Nicolas Mahut and giant-killer Robin Haase in the previous two rounds. He struggled with his serve and rhythm besides committing a huge number of unforced errors.
In contrast, Youzhny played percentage tennis, holding back when he needed to, but giving it all on the big points. To top it, he served well and was rarely in trouble, barring once in the second game of the second set when he trailed 0-30. But four scorching winners, including an ace, pulled him through.
Cilic did not possess similar weapons, though on occasions, his potential was very evident, especially when he craftily drew Youzhny to the net only to pass him. However, these bright moments were more an exception as Youzhny played a better all-round game to win quite comfortably.
Cilic was under pressure at the very start when he dropped his first service game and again in the seventh, allowing Youzhny to race away with the first set in 32 minutes.
The pace noticeably dropped in the second set as games went to serve until 3-3 when Youzhny broke Cilic who then virtually gave up the fight. The Russian wrapped up the set with a break in the ninth game to close the match.
Youzhny was rather forgiving when he pointed out that Cilic was probably very tired after finishing his three-setter against Haase in the early hours of Saturday.
“Both of us finished our quarter-final matches at about the same time, but he played three sets, and so I guess he was more tired than I was. He also played doubles. I played a steady game and am quite happy to make it to the final,” Youzhny said.