Cilic and Wawrinka advance to Chennai Open semis

Chennai: Holder Marin Cilic of Croatia and Swiss third seed Stanislas Wawrinka progressed on Friday to the Chennai Open semi-finals.

World number 14 Cilic overcame Colombian Santiago Giraldo 7-6, 6-1 in one hour 38 minutes while Olympic doubles gold medallist Wawrinka took almost two hours to beat German Michael Berrer 7-6, 6-4 after rain delayed the start of the matches. Second seed Cilic will meet Serbian fourth seed Janko Tipsarevic on Saturday and world number 21 Wawrinka takes on Israeli fifth seed Dudi Sela. Cilic recovered from 4-1 down in the first set against Giraldo to win the tiebreak 7-3. The big-serving 21-year-old then made quick work of his opponent in the second. “They were tough conditions today as it’s so humid,” Cilic told reporters. “My serve improved as the match progressed and I started to get more balls in court. “Obviously the tie-break was the crucial point of the match.” Wawrinka was stretched in the opening set by the free-flowing Berrer, ranked 74 in the world. The left-handed German came back from a break down at 4-2 as he unleashed a series of aggressive forehand winners to force the opening set into a tiebreak which Wawrinka clinched 7-5. The Swiss took a grip of the second set after breaking Berrer in the seventh game before serving out the match. “I played a good tiebreak in the first set and I managed to hold on in the second,” Wawrinka said. “I’m really happy to get to a semi-final in my first week of the year.” Tipsarevic beat Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker 7-5, 7-5 while Sela got past Slovakian Lukas Lacko 7-6, 7-5 in the other quarter-final matches. Bureau Report