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Marin Cilic of Croatia kisses his trophy after defeating Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in their Kremlin Cup final in Moscow yesterday. (Reuters)
AFP/Moscow
Defending champion and top seed Marin Cilic retained his Kremlin Cup title yesterday with a straight-sets win over second seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut in a repeat of last year’s final.
At the combined ATP and WTA event the 27-year-old Croat fired nine aces to win 6-4, 6-4 in one hour 28 minutes to chalk up his second win over Bautista Agut in as many meetings and to grab his season’s first and 14th career title.
“It was a tough match,” Cilic said. “This tournament becomes more and more special for me.
“Coming back for second year in a row to win it again it gives my a huge satisfaction and great pleasure.”
The match looked fairly even at the start with both players holding serve until the seventh game when Cilic, 14th in the ATP rankings, broke to propel himself to a one-set lead in 43 minutes.
In the second Cilic went 4-2 up again.
Bautista Agut dug in to pull the scores level but the Croatian hard hitter stifled his efforts to claim the set and the match by the same scoreline as last year.
“I gave everything I had at this court but it was not enough to win today,” Bautista Agut said. “I hope to come back next year to perform a bit better than this time.”
In the WTA section Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova ended her 14-month title drought with a straight sets win 6-2, 6-1 over compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, last year’s champion, in the Kremlin Cup final on Saturday.
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