Fourth seed Marin Cilic reached his first semi-final of the season as he defeated Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3, 6-4 on Friday at the Open 13 in Marseille.

The Croatian improved to a 3-0 FedEx ATP Head2Head lead over Kuznetsov as he fired 10 aces and won 81 per cent of his service points, claiming victory in just 66 minutes. The 24-year-old Kuznetsov was bidding to reach his first ATP World Tour semi-final and fell to a 0-7 mark in quarter-finals. He also missed out in the Doha quarter-finals in the first week of the season (l. to Nadal).

The 27-year-old Cilic is looking to reach the final of this ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard-court tournament for the second time, having finished runner-up on his last appearance in 2011 (l. to Soderling). The right-hander goes on to face either top seed Stan Wawrinka or Benoit Paire.

Nick Kyrgios hit top form as he stunned third seed Richard Gasquet 6-0, 6-4 in less than an hour to reach the semi-finals. In a dominant display, the 20-year-old Australian relinquished just six points on serve and fired 17 aces, breaking Gasquet three times from seven opportunities in the pair’s sixth meeting.

It was just Kyrgios’ second win over Gasquet, whom he also defeated 10-8 in the fifth set in the 2014 Wimbledon second round. The Canberra native will bid to reach his second ATP World Tour final when he faces either Tomas Berdych or David Goffin on Saturday. Kyrgios reached his maiden final last year in Estoril, finishing runner-up to Gasquet.

Everyone in Delray Beach was rooting for Juan Martin del Potro, even his next opponent.

“I was really happy for him to come back,” said Jeremy Chardy, whom the Argentine will meet in the quarter-finals of the Delray Beach Open. “For a tennis player, the worst is to be injured. [His comeback] is great for the fans too. We need players like him on the tour.”

Del Potro downed Aussie John-Patrick Smith 6-4 6-4 during Thursday’s night session in 77 minutes to set up a third meeting against Chardy (1-1), who eased past American Noah Rubin 6-4, 6-2.

“Physically I felt good,” del Potro said after his match. “But I was playing too many slices. It’s not my game. If I improve my backhand, I will once again be the Tower of Tandil.

“I am so happy to be here, playing in front of my fans. If I can play better, next year I will be back for sure.”

Chardy will be hard-pressed to handle del Potro’s power, but he was glad to see his close friend continue his comeback bid.

“I know [del Potro] really well,” Chardy said. “He’s one year younger than me so we’ve known each other since we were kids. He’s a good friend of mine. We had a lot of fun in juniors together. We never missed a Players Party [back then].

Tim Smyczek was down a set and a break to fellow American Donald Young, but rallied 1-6, 7-6(2), 6-2 to reach his second ATP World Tour quarter-final (2011 San Jose).

“I was trying to figure out how to disrupt what he was doing,” Smyczek said. “My game plan wasn’t bothering him so I had to do something different. I stopped being so offensive. [Young] does very well when he’s under pressure so I had to turn the tables a bit.

“Because we’ve played each other so often in the past, I had to do some things which weren’t my forte. Same for him, which was interesting. I am happy I fought my way through.”