Stan Wawrinka kept his hopes of a semi-final berth alive with a straight-sets victory over Marin Cilic at the ATP World Tour Finals on Wednesday night.
The Swiss superstar helped his chances of finishing the year ranked third and of reaching a fourth-straight semi-final at the O2 with a 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-3) victory.
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Cilic was beaten in straight sets by Andy Murray in his John McEnroe Group opener while Wawrinka lost to Kei Nishikori, meaning whoever lost their second match would almost certainly be heading home.
The win helped US Open champion Wawrinka extend his head-to-head lead to 11-2, having now won his last seven matches against Cilic, who is out.
Did you know...
The last time a player lost his opening match and went on to win the title was in 2009 when Nikolay Davydenko surprised everyone to win at London's O2 Arena.
Shots of the match
Wawrinka showed he is not just all about power as he lured Cilic into the net before showing a delicious touch to lob him.
But when it does come to pure power, Wawrinka __can produce it when it most matters - especially on the backhand side.
Expert analysis
Greg Rusedski: "He's back in business. He played great tonight. Cilic played him into form. He's very confident going up against Marin because Marin isn't willing to come forward which allowed him to hit many groundstrokes and get a feeling for the ball. By the end of it, he was playing lights out tennis. It's not what Andy Murray wanted to see, an in-form Wawrinka on Friday."
Peter Fleming: "This match seemed to turn his game around. He was hitting the ball well and he's not going to be an easy guy to put out."
The match
There was very little to choose between the two players, who both packed a punch with some blistering winners. Cilic had made very few inroads into Wawrinka's serve until he earned a set point at 5-4. However, the Swiss star quickly shut the door with a brave 100mph second serve into the body.
Quite predictably, it headed into a tiebreak, and it was the third seed who started forcing the errors from Cilic's racket, which was enough to take the set.
Just when it looked as though Wawrinka had the momentum, Cilic struck in the opening game of the second set.
Despite being hampered by a knee injury recently, the 31-year-old is determined to finish his season on a high, and responded with some fearsome hitting of his own to level in the fourth game.
It was enough to send the tight contest into another tiebreaker. And Wawrinka struck a huge blow with an unstoppable 98mph forehand for the mini-break which he never relinquished to set up a mouth-watering clash against Murray.
Following his loss to Murray and now Wawrinka, Cilic is 0-5 at the ATP World Tour Finals.
Check our game-by-game coverage from all group matches at the ATP World Tour Finals in London - including Andy Murray v Stan Wawrinka on Friday - on skysports.com/tennis, our app for mobile devices and iPad and our Twitter account @skysportstennis.
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