Tipsarevic and Cilic through at St Petersburg

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Tipsarevic and Cilic through at St Petersburg

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Janko Tipsarevic and Marin Cilic advanced to the St Petersburg semi-finals.

29 October,2011 03:45 am

Second-seeded Janko Tipsarevic will take on seventh-seeded Alex Bogomolov Jr. in the semifinals of the St Petersburg Open after both men maintained their good form in Russia on Friday.The other semifinal will feature fourth-seeded Marin Cilic against the 2004 winner Mikhail Youzhny, seeded fifth.In Fridays quarterfinals, Tipsarevic, who won his second title at the Kremlin Cup on Sunday, rallied to beat Potito Starace 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-1, while Bogomolov, who reached the quarterfinals in Moscow, beat Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic 6-2, 6-1.Later, Cilic advanced to his third semifinal this season after rallying to beat Andreas Seppi 4-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4, and Youzhny made it into his fourth semifinal with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Adrian Mannarino.Youzhny won four consecutive games in the first set and was leading 5-2 in the second. Mannarino saved two match points on his serve before Youzhny served the match out with a winner on his first match point.Seppi, who won his first title in Eastbourne, England, in June, broke twice in the first set, but Cilic saved a match point on a second-set tiebreaker with an ace and converted a set point to stay in the match. The 22nd-ranked Croat broke decisively in the ninth game of the third set and fired his 13th ace of the match to finish it in the next game.Cilic advanced to the final three times from nine quarterfinals he has reached this season, but is yet to win.Starace won four straight points in the tiebreaker to take the first set but the 13th-ranked Tipsarevic reeled off four consecutive games in the second set and five more in the third to secure his eighth semifinal appearance this season.Tipsarevic landed 12 aces in the match and is 7-2 in quarterfinals this season.Bogomolov, still looking for his first ATP title, broke Lajovic twice in the first set and three times in the second for his second consecutive victory over the 228th-ranked Serb.