Vienna: Local hero Jurgen Melzer will bid for the second title of his career on Sunday as he faces Croatian top seed Marin Cilic in the final of the Austrian Tennis Trophy.
Cilic, who defeated German Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 7-6 (7/4), can lift his chances of possible qualification for one of the last two spots in next month's eight-man World Tour Finals with his third trophy of the season.
Melzer reached his fifth final in as many years, rallying through a 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 comeback over Serb Janko Tipsarevic.
The seventh seed ranked 35th becomes the first Austrian since Thomas Muster in 1995 to play a final in the capital. Melzer has reached at least one final per season starting in 2005.
Melzer has won just one title, Bucharest in 2006, but has now managed a hat-trick of Austrian title matches after Kitzbuehel last year and St Poelten in 2005.
"It's about time for me to win another final," said the winner.
The Austrian began his comeback against last week's Moscow finalist Tipsarevic as he won a second-set tiebreaker, levelling the match on his second set point with an ace.
In the third, the Vienna-born local held off Tipsarevic as the Serb came from 0-30 down in the seventh game.
But Melzer, now 35-29 this season, managed to earn the break with a passing shot for a 4-3 lead.
He moved into the final three games later.
"I didn't have the best start but winning the second-set tiebreaker really helped my confidence for the third set," said Melzer. "In the third I was feeling really good with my game. I really wanted to give all I could to win."
Melzer was playing his third semi-final of the season after Umag and Bangkok.
Cilic, champion this season at Chennai and Zagreb, used his big serve to good effect with a dozen aces and two breaks of Kohlschreiber.
The victory was the 44th in 2009 for Cilic, making this his career-best season.
"I've played good matches this week," said Cilic, losing finalist this month to Novak Djokovic in Beijing. "I've been lifting my level.
"I'm really happy to be in another final so soon after my last. I hope to take this title."
Cilic has won all three of his matches with Melzer, all of them played in 2008.
Bureau Report