Dilic, 35th in the world rankings, had to use his experience to win 7-6 (7/3), 4-6 and 6-4 in two hours and 23 minutes of confrontation.
33-year-old Cilic relied on the serve to endorse 12 direct points to Fritz and also win 78 percent of the points with his first service for 10 and 65 for the North American.
With his victory, Cilic adds 20 titles as a professional, to become the sixth active player to archive that number of trophies together with the legendary Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, the British Andy Murray and the Argentine Juan Martín del Potro.
This is Cilic’s second final in a row in Russia, after losing the Moscow Open final to host Aslan Karatsev a week ago.
ale / rws
