Marin Cilic clashes with Mikhail Youzhny in the last four of the St Petersburg Open.
Youzhny has a fine record in St Petersburg, winning the title in 2004 and finishing runner-up twice. The fifth seed will be looking to make a fourth final in front of his home fans but first of all he has to negotiate the brutal serving power of Cilic.
The Croatian has had an up and down season but he's already made three ATP finals this year, most recently in Beijing and is enjoying a strong finish to the year. The fourth seed held strong to see off Andreas Seppi on Friday, smashing 13 aces on the way to a 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-4 win.
"I think, Seppi has played one of the best matches I've ever played against him," Cilic said. "He was serving really high percentage of the first serve and I wasn't getting any chances to break him. Toward the end of the match I was getting better and my serve helped me in the end."
"He (Youzhny) is a tough player for me to play, but this year we are 1-1 and had tight matches," Cilic said. "I think, it's important for me to keep pushing myself and try to play tomorrow really good."
Youzhny himself enjoyed a comfortable 6-2, 6-3 quarter-final win over Adrian Mannarino and he leads 5-1 on the head-to-head against Cilic.
Prediction: Youzhny in three
