By Chris Oddo | Friday, July 25, 2014

 

Top seeds held sway on quarterfinal Friday in Umag, as Marin Cilic, Tommy Robredo and Fabio Fognini all advanced.

Photo Source: Vegeta Croatian Open Umag

Top seeds held sway on quarterfinal Friday at the Vegeta Crotia Open Umag, as defending champion Tommy Robredo and last year’s runner-up Fabio Fognini joined hometown favorite Marin Cilic in reaching the semifinals.

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There was plenty to cheer about for Croatian fans, as the afternoon’s final match featured a clinical performance by 2012 Umag champion Marin Cilic. The world No. 22 handed Lukas Rosol a first-set bagel and hardly let up in the second set as he finished off a 6-0, 6-2 thrashing that took just over 62 minutes to complete.

The matchup clearly favors Cilic, as he’s now faced Rosol four times at the professional level and won all four in straight sets.

Croatian hope was overflowing when the night session got underway as well, as 17-year-old Borna Coric took the first set from Fabio Fognini with some sparkling, versatile tennis before finally yielding, 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-3 to the top seed.

Coric, who had won his first two ATP main draw matches earlier in the week, became the second-youngest quarterfinalist in Umag history, and will crack the top 200 next week as a result.

The youngster actually was up a break in the second set before falling off against Fognini’s world-class clay game. In the breaker and in the third set it appeared that he didn’t have enough gas in the tank to execute his gameplan the way he would have liked.

Earlier in the afternoon top-seeded Tommy Robredo made short work of compatriot Pablo Carreno Busta, breaking serve six times on eleven opportunities to knock off Carreno Busta for the third time this season.

Robredo’s victory sets up an enticing semifinal clash with Cilic, while Fognini will face Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas in his semifinal. Cuevas defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, and will bid for a second ATP final in three weeks after winning his maiden title in Bastad two weeks ago.

For Gabashvili, the news was all bad, as the Russian saw his run of ATP quarterfinal futility reach 13. He has never reached an ATP semifinal.