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CHENNAI, India : Third seed Stanislas Wawrinka and fourth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic shrugged off a lengthy rain delay to advance to the ATP Chennai Open semi-finals on Friday.
There was also a place in the last four of the 400,000-dollar event for Israeli fifth seed Dudi Sela, who overcame promising Lukas Lacko of the Slovak Republic 7-6 (7/3), 7-5.
Some 200 Indian fans braved the damp weather to watch play begin at 8:30 pm (1500 GMT) after light rain delayed the start by three hours.
The organisers juggled the order of play to avoid a very late finish, scheduling two quarter-finals on the centre court and the remaining two on the outer courts.
Wawrinka, who opened the night's proceedings on centre court, survived a tough first set against seventh seed Michael Berrer of Germany to win 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 in an hour and 50 minutes.
"It's a really good first tournament of the year for me so far," said the 21st-ranked Wawrinka, the number two Swiss player behind Roger Federer.
"To win in straight sets in a quarter-final is great. In fact, to win three matches in straight sets is ideal.
"On the Tour we're used to waiting to play because of the rain. It's part of the job, pretty easy to handle. They put me for the first match, so it wasn't a problem at all."
Wawrinka plays Sela in Saturday's semi-final.
Tipsarevic, who struggled with his serves, overcame Thiemo de Bakker of the Netherlands 7-5, 7-5 in a hard-fought match that lasted two hours and six minutes.
The Dutchman, playing in his maiden ATP Tour quarter-final, led 4-1 in the first set and 3-0 in the second, but failed to build on the early advantage against the experienced Serb.
Tipsarevic plays either second seed Marin Cilic of Croatia or Santiago Giraldo of Colombia for a place in the final.
- AFP /ls
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