UMAG, Croatia (AP)—Fourth-seeded Croat Marin Cilic defeated Italy’s Andreas Seppi on Friday to reach the semifinals of the Croatia Open.
Cilic cruised to victory, beating the seventh-seeded Seppi 6-1, 6-3 in just 72 minutes. He faced only one break point, winning 24 out of 29 points played on the first serve.
“I played great match,” he said. “I had to work for every single point, especially in the second set. I knew I had to stay focused, I did not want to give him any chance to come back.”
Seppi, who reached the semifinals of the Croatia Open the past two years, could not find the game to counter Cilic.
“I could not make any pressure on him, could not hit winners,” Seppi said. “It was very difficult for me, he was better than me today.”
Cilic is the first Croat to reach the semifinals in Umag since Zeljko Krajan in 2002.
Cilic will next face another Italian, sixth-seeded Fabio Fognini, who rallied from one set down to defeat last year’s finalist Potito Starace 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Also, second-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov got another straight-set victory, defeating Spaniard Albert Ramos 6-3, 7-5.
Dolgopolov next plays another Spaniard, Juan Carlos Ferrero, who defeated Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq 6-1, 7-6 (5). Ferrero wasted a 5-1 lead in the second set, but managed to break later and force a tiebreak.