Second seed Milos Raonic stormed through to the St Petersburg Open semi-finals on Friday with a 6-1 6-2 rout of Tommy Robredo.
The 24-year-old Canadian, who is aiming to make a late charge for the end-of-season ATP World Tour Finals having suffered with a foot injury this season, needed just 53 minutes to see off fifth-seeded Spaniard Robredo.
"It was a difficult match," said Raonic, who had 11 aces and capitalised on all four of his break-point opportunities. "I'm really happy with how I played. I played better than (Thursday), obviously, and that's all I can ask from myself."
World number nine Raonic will face another Spaniard, Roberto Bautista Agut, in the last four as he bids to reach his second ATP final of the campaign.
"Bautista Agut will present problems (on Saturday)," Raonic added on www.atpworldtour.com. "The question is, can I deal with those problems? Hopefully I can find the solutions in my match and I can play as well as I did (on Friday) and continue to improve."
Fourth seed Bautista Agut also enjoyed a straightforward quarter-final encounter, overcoming Frenchman Lucas Pouille 6-2 6-3 in 70 minutes.
Saturday's other semi-final will pit third seed Dominic Thiem against seventh seed Joao Sousa.
Twenty-two-year-old Austrian Thiem - winner of three ATP titles already this year - defeated Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-2 7-5 on Friday, while Portuguese Sousa posted a hard-fought 7-6 (9/7) 7-6 (7/1) victory over Italy's Simone Bolelli.
Source: PA
