Jurgen Melzer earned a 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Marin Cilic to win the Austria Tennis Trophy and put the Croatian on the back foot in his quest for a place in the ATP year-end final on Sunday.

The home hero became the first from the nation to lift the trophy since Horst Skoff in 1988, who beat Thomas Muster.

Muster, the former king of clay, was the last Austrian into the final at the Stadthalle, where he lost the 1995 final to Belgian Filip Dewulf.

"This is unbelievable, to beat Cilic for this title is really a great accomplishment. I'm really happy," said the winner, now owner of a second career title after Bucharest three years ago.

Melzer was buoyed by support from a victory-starved home crowd, which willed him to victory in just over 90 minutes with just one ace but successful salvage efforts on the five break points he faced.

Cilic is still in the hunt for one of two places remaining in his month's eight-man ATP World Tour Finals in London.

But the Croatian will need a superhuman effort in his next two events to end the regular season.

"I really have to produce something for the rest of the season," said the 13th-ranked Croatian, who lost his only sets of the week in the final as he was denied a third trophy in 2009 after Chennai and Zagreb.

"I have a lot of things to improve in my game, just about everything. These last two weeks will be very important for me. I really want to do everything to try and get to London."

Cilic went down with a break in the opening set and was broken to trail 2-3 in the second after saving three break points.

Melzer bore the pressure well in the final game as Cilic recovered from 0-30, and then saved two match points before losing serve to hand over the victory to the Austrian on a forehand wide.