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Federer reaches semis; Croatian teen stuns Murray in Dubai

Six-time champion Roger Federer was an easy winner, while Croatian teenager Borna Coric ousted former runner-up Andy Murray in Thursday's quarterfinal action at the $2 million Dubai Tennis Championships.

The second-seeded former world No. 1 great Federer was handling former top-10 Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-1 after one set when Gasquet retired on Day 4.

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The Wimbledon runner-up Federer's semifinal opponent on Friday will be the rising 18-year-old Coric, who whipped the third-seeded Murray 6-1, 6-3 on the hardcourts at Aviation Tennis Centre.

It marked the lucky loser Coric's second career win against a top-10 player, after he converted on four-of-eight break-point chances on Thursday. The world No. 84 beat Rafael Nadal en route to the Swiss Indoors semifinals back in October.

"[It's] one of the biggest wins, for sure," said Coric after taking out the two-time Grand Slam champion Murray. "I was just trying to maintain my level, stay in the rallies as long as I can, which I was doing really well. I was also running very well.

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"I'm still a little bit struggling with the best players when they are playing really good obviously. I always need to be on 100 percent, and when I'm on 100 percent, mentally [and] also tennis wise, then I think I can play with them."

Last month's Australian Open runner-up Murray was the 2012 Dubai runner-up to Federer.

"He didn't make many errors," Murray said of Coric. "He played very solid and he moved well. I made way too many mistakes from the beginning of the match right through to the end, early in rallies, rushing points."

Another quarterfinal result saw fourth-seeded two-time Dubai runner-up Tomas Berdych sneak past Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Berdych lost in the last two finals here, including last year versus the amazing Federer.

This year's Dubai champ will earn $505,000.

[SportsNetwork.com]

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