US Open champion Marin Cilic reached the semi-finals of the Kremlin Cup on Friday by beating Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-3.
Cilic is looking to reach his fifth final of the year when he faces Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan, who upset seventh-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 1-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-0.
Cilic said he played much better than in his three-set win against qualifier Evgeny Donskoy in the previous round.
Photo: EPA
“I think today’s match was a level higher in everything, in movement, in groundstrokes and especially the serve,” Cilic said.
In Kukushkin, he faces an opponent who is historically strong on Moscow’s relatively slow hard courts, having reached the final of the Kremlin Cup last year.
“He’s the kind of player who likes to be aggressive, but plays flat a lot and when he’s hot he can be very dangerous,” Cilic said. “I’m going to have to be controlling much more rallies.”
In the other semi-final, Latvian Ernests Gulbis is to meet Spain’s Roberto Bautista-Agut.
Gulbis won his quarter-final 7-6 (8/6), 4-6, 7-6 (7/3) against Italy’s Andreas Seppi, the 2012 Kremlin Cup champion, while the fifth-seeded Bautista-Agut beat Lithuanian qualifier Ricardas Berankis 7-5, 6-3.
Gulbis continues to struggle with a shoulder injury, but said that it “was more or less fine” as he beat Seppi.
The two highest-seeded players left in the women’s draw met in the quarter-finals as No. 4 Lucie Safarova won 6-4, 7-5 against No. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova.
“I’m feeling good here. I really like playing indoors,” Safarova said. “I’ve played well in my first two matches here and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Safarova’s semi-final opponent is Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu, who bounced back from a first-set thrashing to beat Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
The other semi-final pits Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova against 18-year-old Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic, who won her first-ever WTA tour quarter-final.
Pavlyuchenkova struggled to a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win over Russian qualifier Vitalia Diatchenko after Siniakova had come through a three-hour battle against Italy’s Camila Giorgi, winning 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-5.
STOCKHOLM OPEN
AP, STOCKHOLM
Top-seeded Tomas Berdych beat Marius Copil of Romania 6-2, 6-2 on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the Stockholm Open.
Bachinger served 13 aces as he defeated Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Australia’s Bernard Tomic faces defending champion Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria in the other semi-final.
Tomic recovered from a miserable start to beat Fernando Verdasco of Spain 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8/6).
Dimitrov beat American Jack Sock 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
LUXEMBOURG OPEN
AP, LUXEMBOURG
Fourth-seeded Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic is to face Annika Beck of Germany in the Luxembourg Open final after both players made light work of their semi-finals on Friday.
After Beck took just 47 minutes to sweep aside Denisa Allertova of the Czech Republic 6-0, 6-1, the 31st-ranked Zahlavova Strycova followed up with a comprehensive 6-3, 6-2 win against Germany’s Mona Barthel.
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