Nishikori Beats Almagro; Finals Contenders Troicki, Tipsarevic In SFs

© AFP/Getty ImagesKei Nishikori has reached his fourth ATP World Tour semi-final (or better) this year.

Japan's Kei Nishikori reached his fourth ATP World Tour semi-final of the season on Friday, when he beat top-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 for a place in the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2011 semi-finals. It was the eighth seed's 28th match win of the year, highlighted by a runner-up finish at the US Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston (l. to Sweeting).

Nishikori will next challenge third-seeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, who beat the World No. 54 in the AEGON International semi-finals at Eastbourne in June. Almagro, currently 70 points behind No. 8-ranked Tomas Berdych in the South African Airways 2011 ATP Year-To-Date Rankings in the battle to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in November, dropped to a 46-19 match record on the season.

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Earlier in the day, World No. 15 Viktor Troicki reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final since February as he dismissed seventh seed Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-4. Troicki failed to serve out the match at 5-2 in the second set, but did not falter in the 10th game as he claimed victory in 76 minutes. The second-seeded Serbian came into the ATP World Tour 250 hard-court tournament on the back of four successive defeats, but at No. 17 in the Year-To-Date Rankings, has an outside chance of qualifying for the elite season finale.

"We both returned pretty well, that's why there were maybe more breaks than usual," said Troicki. "My focus went down a bit maybe [at the end of the second set], but it was good to close it out in two sets. It's helping my confidence to get some wins here. I lost early in Cincinnati and at the US Open so my confidence wasn't great coming in here. Getting to another ATP semi-final helps me a lot."

On Saturday Troicki will face Cypriot wild card Marcos Baghdatis, who derailed fourth-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 7-6(3). Former World No. 8 Baghdatis claimed the only break of the match to win the first set and, after saving a set point in the 10th game of the second set, controlled the tie-break to claim victory in 88 minutes. The 26-year-old Baghdatis is through to his second ATP World Tour semi-final of the season, having also reached the last four at the UNICEF Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in June (l. to Dodig). He improved to a 24-22 match record on the year.

Tipsarevic was granted a semi-final berth when his opponent, fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko, was forced to retire with a left hip injury just four games into their clash; Tipsarevic was leading 3-1. "I don't know what the injury is exactly yet," said Davydenko. "I'm a bit scared as I've never had anything like it before. I will still go to Beijing, maybe wait a few days and see what the pain is like. It's a shame. I always enjoy this tournament and I hope to come back again in the future."