Lopez sets up Cilic final at Queen’s

Spanish veteran Feliciano Lopez has helped banish the memory of one of his most painful defeats by beating Grigor Dimitrov to set up an Aegon Championships final against Marin Cilic.

Three years after failing to convert a match point in the Queen’s Club title match against the Bulgarian, the 35-year-old left-hander avenged that loss with a 7-5 3-6 6-2 victory on Saturday.

If he is not to fall short for a second time, however, he will have to produce his best tennis again a fired-up Cilic who overcame Luxembourg’s in-form Gilles Muller.

Bidding for a repeat of the title he won in 2012, the fourth seed dropped serve for the first time all week but recovered quickly to win 6-3 5-7 6-4, ending veteran Muller’s seven-match winning streak on grass.

Lopez capitalised on a run of Dimitrov errors at 5-5 in the first set to break before holding serve with ease.

A rain delay midway through the second set broke his rhythm though and sixth seed Dimitrov seized his chance to level.

Lopez was comfortably the better player in the decider, though, as he moved through to the final.

“It’s a gift to be in this final again,” Lopez, who looked close to tears at the end, told reporters. “I think the first set was the best I’ve played all week.”

Lopez, Cilic and Muller had all reached the last four without dropping serve, so it was a surprise when Cilic began to read Muller’s swinging delivery early on and broke in the fifth game of the day’s first semifinal.

Cilic wrapped up the opening set quickly and had he converted break points in the third or seventh games of the second set he would have spared himself any undue stress.

Instead, one lapse of concentration at 5-6 blotted his copybook to allow Muller to snatch the second set.

It was nothing more than an inconvenience, though, as the Croatian broke in the seventh game of the decider and powered home to victory, sealing it with a second-serve ace on match point.

“Today’s match was a really high level,” said the world No.7, who is coached by former pro Jonas Bjorkman.

“I played really well throughout and Gilles was pushing me to the limits. I’ve felt really good on serve all week and today I was mixing it up and playing smart.”

The one worry for him is that his doubles semifinal – in which he was partnering Marcin Matkowski against Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares – was not finished because of rain, meaning he faces a busy schedule on Sunday.