Marin Cilic saved a match point on his way to defeating Novak Djokovic 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-3 on Sunday as he claimed a second Queen’s Club title.
The top-seeded Croat first won the Wimbledon warmup event in 2012, but was the runner-up in 2013 and also lost to Feliciano Lopez in last year’s final.
Having saved six break points, Djokovic struck with the first chance of his own to clinch a draining 67-minute first set, before a reversal of fortunes in the second.
The 12-time Grand Slam champion wasted an early opportunity to break before Cilic saved a match point at 4-5 and then won six points from 4-1 down in the tiebreaker to level the match.
Cilic produced a stunning forehand passing shot on his way to breaking for a 5-3 lead in the decider and then delivered a nerveless service game to close out the match in just under three hours.