Tipsarevic beat Alex Bogomolov Jr. 6-2, 6-1 to reach his second final in as many weeks, and Cilic ousted 2004 champion and last season's runner-up Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals.
Cilic won four consecutive games in the first set for a 5-1 lead and broke Youzhny decisively in the ninth game of the second. He closed it out with a drop shot on his first match point.
"It was not a great tennis match from both of us, it was more a tactical game," Cilic said. "It was important for me to start good and have at least a break at the beginning, which I did and then it was much easier to play. I think Misha wasn't playing so well today. I played well on most important points and in the second set, when I was a break down, I was mentally still in the match."
The fourth-seeded Cilic will be playing in his fourth final this season. Cilic is 5-1 against Tipsarevic, who won last time in Miami in March.
"I think Janko is playing tennis of his life these last three months, but I believe I have good a chance this week and I'm going to be really motivated for the final," Cilic said.
The second-seeded Tipsarevic won eight straight games to close out the first set and take a 5-0 lead in the second. Last Sunday, he won his second career title at the Kremlin Cup. His first title came in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in September.
"Even though by the scoreline the match looked pretty easy ... on the court it really didn't feel easy," Tipsarevic said. "I feel I was playing better from the base line, but the main difference today was that I was serving much better then him. I was winning one or two free points off my serve in every game, and he had to fight for every single point because he had no winners from the first shot." It was the second semifinal this season for Bogomolov, a Russian-born American who also made the final four in Los Angeles in June.
"I made a lot of mistakes, he made few," Bogomolov said.
