Top seed Roger Federer will challenge for a ninth Halle Open title after reaching the Wimbledon warm-up event final with a 6-4, 7-6(5) victory over rising Russian talent Karen Khachanov on Saturday.
The 18-time Grand Slam champion, who captured the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami titles this year, skipped the entire claycourt season to improve his chances of winning a record eighth title at the All England Club.
He converted his first match point to reach an 11th Halle final.
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Czech Petra Kvitova’s comeback from a lengthy injury layoff gathered momentum on Saturday as she reached the Aegon Classic final in Birmingham after Lucie Safarova retired from their semifinal with a leg injury.
Leander Paes and Adil Shamasdin of Canada won the doubles title in the €127,000 Aegon Ilkley Challenger grasscourt tennis tournament on Saturday.
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The top-seeded pair beat British wild cards Brydan Klein and Joe Salisbury 2-6, 6-2, 10-8.
The results: At London: ATP Aegon Championships: Semifinals: Marin Cilic bt Gilles Muller 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
Quarterfinals: Feliciano Lopez bt Tomas Berdych 7-6(5), 6-7(1), 7-5.
At Halle: ATP Gerry Weber Open: Semifinals: Roger Federer bt Karen Khachanov 6-4, 7-6(5).
At Birmingham: WTA Aegon Classic: Semifinal: Ashleigh Barty bt Garbine Muguruza 3-6, 6-4, 6-3; Petra Kvitova bt Lucie Safarova 6-1, 1-0 (retired).
Quarterfinals: Barty bt Camila Giorgi 5-2 [retired].
Doubles: Semifinals: Ashleigh Barty & Casey Dellacqua w/o Sania Mirza and CoCo Vandeweghe.
At Mallorca: WTA Mallorca Open: Semifinals: Julia Goerges bt Catherine Bellis 6-1, 6-1.
Quarterfinals: Caroline Garcia bt Roberta Vinci 6-2, 7-6(8).
€127,000 Challenger men, Ilkley, Britain: Doubles (final): Adil Shamasdin (Can) & Leander Paes bt Brydan Klein & Joe Salisbury (GBR) 2-6, 6-2, [10-8].
$15,000 ITF, Hong Kong: Doubles (final): Francis Casey Alcantara (Phi) & Karunuday Singh bt Tomohiro Masabayashi & Yuki Mochizuki (Jpn) 6-3, 4-6, 11-9.