Chennai, Jan 9: Third seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia and fifth seeded Rainer Schuettler of Germany stayed on course making the singles semifinals of the USD 4,50,000 Chennai Open ATP Tour tennis championship here today.
Cilic overwhelmed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 in their 122 minutes quarterfinal encounter while Schuettler clinched a 6-2 7-5 win against Bjorn Phau in 98 minutes in an all-German affair on the outside court.
In the third quarterfinal match, eigth seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain got the better of a fighting wild card entrant Lukas Dlouhy of Czech Republic 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 in a two hour marathon.
Schuettler now awaits the winner of Somdev Devvarman and Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) match while Cilic plays Granollers in the last four stage match.
In a match between two best of friends and doubles partners, on the heels of last night's a solid win over second seeds Leander Paes and Dlouhy, Schuettler broke Phau early in the second game itself and with games going on serve, went on to lead 5-2.
Schuettler broke Phau again in the eighth game to claim the set.
But it was tough going for the veteran as Phau made amends to his first set lapses by being much more focused. While Phau rallied brilliantly, Schuettler could not cash in on the chances that came his way.
The second game break in the second set for Schuettler was short lived as the younger German returned the compliment with two break points to take the third game and led 5-2 with a seventh game break. - Agencies
Jan 09, 2009