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Patna : World No 35 Marin Cilic, 33, Croatia, beat 5th seed Taylor Fritz, 24, USA, in three-sets lasting 2hr 23 minutes in final to clinch the St. Petersburg Open title, an ATP 250 event. Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion,defeated Fritz 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 in final at St Petersburg, Russia, on October 31, 2021, to win the singles title, his 20th career title.
Both Cilic and Fritz won 5 break points each during the match indicating how close the contest was. Both of them also won 3 games each in a row during the match. Cilic, however, won the tie-break. The Croatian fired 12 Aces in the match to 10 by the American. Cilic, in all,won 103 points during the match to 97 by Fritz. Cilic had defeated 3rd seed Roberto Bautista Agut, 33, Spain, in quarter-final. Top seed Andrey Rublev, Russia, and 2nd Denis Shapovalov, Canada, had lost in the quarter-finals.