The world no 14, Marin Cilic of Croatia and third seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Sweden have advanced into the semifinals of the men’s singles event of the USD 40,000 Aircel Chennai Open after winning their respective quarterfinal matches on Friday.

The second seeded Cilic defeated Colombian Santiago Giraldo in straight sets by 7-6 6-1 in one hour and thirty-eight minutes. Cilic was trailing by 4-1 in the first set but he came back strongly to clinch the first set after it went to tie-breaker.

World no 21, Wawrinka survived from scare of world no 74 German Michael Berrer as he won the match by 7-6 6-4 after a marathon of almost two hours. The start of the match was delayed due to rain interruption.

Cilic will now clash with fourth seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia in the semifinal while Wawrinka will lock horns with fifth seeded Dudi Sela of Israel in other semifinal on Saturday.