Nishikori earns rematch with Tipsarevic

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Kei Nishikori ousted top-seeded Nicolas Almagro and won a semifinals berth Friday at the Malaysian Open tennis tournament.

Nishikori claimed a tight 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-4 decision. He won 105 points to 101 for Almagro in the 2-hour, 15-minute match. He broke Almagro's serve four times, including the only break in the decisive third set.

The victory gave Nishikori a fifth match this year against third-seeded Janko Tipsarevic. Tipsarevic has won all of those matches, two of which were also semifinals.

Tipsarevic advanced out of the quarterfinals when Nikolay Davydenko, citing a hamstring problem, retired in the first set with Tipsarevic ahead 3-1.

Wild-card entrant Marcos Baghdatis posted a 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) upset of fourth-seeded Jurgen Melzer. Baghdatis had 13 aces and won more than three-quarters of the points on serve. He won all 11 of his service games.

Second-seeded Viktor Troicki needed all five of the breaks he managed against No. 7-seeed Dmitry Tursunov en route to a 6-4, 6-4 victory. Troicki lost his serve three times but converted all but two of his seven break chances.

Troicki and Baghdatis have played twice before, splitting the matches in 2010. One of those was in the finals in Moscow, won by Troicki.