Cilic Seals Umag Semis Spot; Ferrero Advances

© ATP Studena Croatia OpenAlexandr Dolgopolov reached his fourth clay-court semi-final of the year.

Fourth seed Marin Cilic took one step closer to becoming the first Croatian winner at the ATP Studena Croatia Open since 1990 on Friday when he reached the semi-finals with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over seventh seed Andreas Seppi.

The 22-year-old Cilic had needed three sets to win his opener against Robin Haase on Thursday, but enjoyed much smoother progress against the No. 44-ranked Seppi, breaking serve four times and winning 83 per cent of points on first serve. "Yesterday was a different match than today's. I knew what to expect from Seppi so it was easier for me to approach this match," said Cilic.

"It was more about how I was going to play. I was hitting the ball very well and found a good balance in my game between hitting my own shots and playing defence. Hopefully I can continue that in my next match."

World No. 31 Cilic is coming off a quarter-final showing in Hamburg (l. to Youzhny) last week and is through to his first semi-final since finishing runner-up in Marseille (l. to Soderling) in February.

Cilic goes on to face sixth seed Fabio Fognini, who defeated last year’s runner-up Potito Starace 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in an all-Italian quarter-final meeting. World No. 38 Fognini, who advanced to his first Grand Slam quarter-final at Roland Garros, is bidding to reach his first ATP World Tour final.

No. 2 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov beat Albert Ramos 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 25 minutes to book his place in the semi-finals.

The 22-year-old Ukranian advances to his fourth clay court semi-final of the season, after finishing runner-up at the Brasil Open and reaching the final four in Acapulco and Nice.

Dolgopolov will square off against defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero on Saturday. The unseeded 31 year old was challenged in the second set of his quarter-final encounter with Carlos Berlocq, but closed the Argentine out in a tie-break 6-1, 7-6(5) to advance.

Ferrero served for the match, up a set and 5-3, but Berlocq won three consecutive games and had an opportunity to serve out the set before the Spaniard broke back to send the second set into a tie-break, where he claimed victory in one hour and 24 minutes.

The former World No. 1 won his 16th ATP World Tour title at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart two weeks ago and his playing just his fifth event of the season after returning from wrist and knee injuries.

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