JAPAN'S Kei Nishikori upset Spain's top seed Nicolas Almagro on a day which saw the Serbians ending Russia's stranglehold on the men's singles of the ATP Malaysian Open at Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
Nishikori played flawless tennis to come back from one set down to edge World No 11 Almagro 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-4 in 135 minutes to earn his fourth semi-final appearance this season.
The World No 54's heavy top spins drew many unforced errors from the impatient Almagro in the opening set but the Spaniard earned a crucial break in the tie-breaker to win.
Nishikori then got the decisive break in the ninth game to seal the second set before breaking the opening game of the third to seal victory.
"I played great tennis... kept on fighting to beat a former top-10 ranked player.
"My backhand was not working today (yesterday) but luckily I managed to beat him," said the 21-year-old in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
Nishikori, the eighth seed, faces Serbia's third seed Janko Tipsarevic, who was up 3-1 when Russia's former champion Nikolay Davydenko retired with a suspected hip injury.
"I've lost to Tipsarevic four times, twice in the semi-finals, this year... it is always hard against him as he has a good serve and back hand. I need to be careful as he likes to come to the net," said Nishikori.
Tipsarevic, the World No 17, was 15-30 down in the third game of the first set when Davydenko called for the trainer and took a medical time-out after the next point.
Davydenko, the World 36, returned briefly, allowing Tipsarevic to clinch the next two games before retiring.
"I'm happy to be in the semi-finals but this was not how I wanted to do it. Anyway, I am feeling confident and hitting the ball well," said the Serb.
Davydenko said: "I don't know what the injury is exactly yet. I'm a nit scared and I've never had anything like it before. I will go to Beijing, maybe wait a few days and see what the pain is like," said the 30-year-old.
Viktor Troicki, the World No 15 and second seed, reached his first ATP-level semi-finals since February as he dismissed Russia's seventh seed Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-4.
Troicki failed to serve out the match at 5-2 in the second set against Tursunov, but did not falter in the 10th game as he claimed victory in 76 minutes.
"It was tough match. It was tough to hold serve as the courts are slow and every point has to be worked for. But this is normally my favourite surface (indoor hard court) and I think I played a good match and I'm happy to be in the semis of a tournament after a long time," said Troicki.
The Serbian will face Cypriot wild card Marcos Baghdatis, who upset fourth-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), in today's semi-finals.
Baghdatis, a former World No 8, claimed the only break of the match to win the first set and, after saving a set point in the 10th game of the second set, controlled the tie-break to claim victory in 88 minutes.
The 26-year-old hopes to get his revenge against Troicki, who defeated him in the Kremlin Cup final last October.
"He (Troicki) is a patient player at the baseline and does not make too many mistakes. I must serve well and try to be more aggressive on his serve," said Baghdatis, the World No 60.
