Sat Aug 23 00:29:16 2008

Comment | Email | Print

Fish, Cilic to meet in Pilot Pen final

---

New Haven, CT (Sports Network) - For the second time in two years, American Mardy Fish will play in the final at the $708,000 Pilot Pen Tennis event, a final U.S. Open tune-up.

He will face Croatia's Marin Cilic, who along with Fish won a semifinal match in Friday's action.

The eighth-seeded Fish upset top-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-0, 1-6, 6-3 on the hardcourts at the Connecticut Tennis Center. Fish was last year's runner-up here to fellow American James Blake on the grounds at Yale University.

Sixth-seeded Cilic had little trouble with Luka Gregorc, winning the match by a 6-3, 6-3 score.

The 26-year-old Fish will appear in his 11th career final. He's 2-8 in his previous finals, including a loss against Serbian star Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells earlier this season. A Minnesota native, Fish's last title came in Houston in 2006.

Cilic, meanwhile, has never appeared in the final of an ATP event, and has never faced Fish in an ATP match. The 19-year-old is 26-21 on the year and was a semifinalist at Nottingham and Chennai.