After the rain finally relented, the top seeds left in the tournament promptly booked all four berths at the Aircel Chennai Open semi-finals.

By Bhagya L Ayyavoo

Heavy drizzle disrupted the schedule on Day 5. Play finally began over three hours behind schedule.

Swiss No.2 Wawrinka started the proceedings on center court on a rain-hit Day 5 at the Aircel Chennai Open tournament. After an hour and 50 minutes, the world No.21 dispatched off No.7 seed Michael Berrer of Germany in straight sets, 7-6(5) 6-4.

"It's a really good first tournament of the year for me so far. To win in straight sets in a quarterfinal is great. Today I played a good tie-break in the first set and I managed to hold on in the second set. To win 3 matches in straight sets is ideal,” said Wawrinka after his best show in Chennai. "I'm really happy to get to a semifinal in my first week of the year. I will either play Lacko or Sela. I've never played played against Lacko, and I think I played against Sela but only in the juniors, so in a sense it will be a new match either way," added the third seed, who was knocked out in the opener during his debut season last year. 

Elsewhere, Serbia’s No.2 player, Janko Tipsarevic wrapped up a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Thiemo de Bakker of The Netherlands in another hard-fought encounter that lasted over two hours. The fourth seed got through amidst a huge crowd cheering him on. "I'm really happy that I'm in the semifinals. But I'm not happy with how I played today. The only satisfaction today is how I fought. I was down in both sets and I managed to find a way to win in straight sets. If I play like I did today in the semifinals, it will be bad. But if I play like I did earlier in the week then I think I have a good chance."

In another match, defending champion Marin Cilic quelled a stiff challenge from Santiago Giraldo of Colombia, 7-6(3) 6-1 to enter the last-four stage. This is Cilic’s third straight semis or better result at India’s only ATP tournament. Down 2-5, the highest seed left in the tournament made a fighting comeback to take the first set in the tie breaker. Cilic admitted to espnstar.com it wasn’t an easy win, “It wasn’t easy to comeback. I had to change my game a little bit because from the beginning I was missing too much and he was making a lot of winners. And later when I played him more, he had some unforced errors and I got back into the match. Tie-break was a crucial point of the whole match. Later it was much easier mentally.”

And in the last quarter-final match, fifth-seeded Dudi Sela too came through a tight encounter against Lukas Lacko, 7-6(3) 7-5 to complete the semi-final line-up. Cilic will take on Tipsarevic and Wawrinka will play Sela in Saturday’s semis action.