Cilic, Lopez advance to Queen's final

LONDON — Marin Cilic and Feliciano Lopez recovered from having their serves broken for the first time this week to secure returns to the final of the Queen's grass-court tournament on Saturday.

Cilic, the 2012 champion, ended Gilles Muller's seven-match winning run on grass with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory in the first semifinal.

Lopez then gained a measure of revenge for his loss to Grigor Dimitrov in the 2014 final by beating the Bulgarian 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 in a hardfought contest that was delayed mid-match by the first bout of heavy rain this week.

It's not the title match many would have predicted at the start of the week, with Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Milos Raonic — the top three seeded players — all getting eliminated in the first round. But it still contains two strong grass-court players who will be gaining plenty of confidence heading into Wimbledon, which starts on July 3.

"I am so happy to be in the final, it's one of the most special tournaments for me. I have wanted to win this tournament so bad," said No. 32-ranked Lopez, who expressed delight that Cilic was playing in a semifinal of the doubles on Saturday evening.

That was suspended near the end of the second set, with Cilic and Marcin Matkowski leading 6-1, 3-5 against Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares. That match will conclude after the singles final on Sunday. Cilic is bidding to become the first man since Pete Sampras in 1995 to win the singles and doubles titles at one Queen's.

The fourth-seeded Cilic certainly looks the fresher after four singles matches this week, with Lopez initially appearing jaded against Dimitrov following his tough three-set win over Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals. Lopez remained rooted in his seat, head in his hands, after clinching victory on Centre Court.

It took nearly nine sets this week for Lopez to lose his serve, helping Dimitrov take the semifinal to a deciding set. AP