ISTANBUL: Swiss world No.2 Roger Federer on Friday survived a serious challenge from Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain to edge into the semifinals of the Istanbul Open after a three set battle lasting almost two-and-a-half hours.

Gimeno-Traver, 29, the world number 62, was in no way overawed by the occasion as he met Federer for the first time with the Swiss eventually pushing through to win 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (5/7), 6-3.

Federer showed exquisite touch at times but the Spaniard put up strong resistance.

The 17-times Grand Slam winner was kept in place in a tight first set, only moving ahead in the tie break which he took with a gorgeous backhand crosscourt dink that ravished the crowd.

Playing with aggression and abandon, Gimeno-Traver raced to a 5-2 lead in the second set but Federer pegged him back to force another tie-break.

Against the odds, Gimeno-Traver raised his game once more with some impressive shot making, taking the breaker 7-5 when Federer tamely pushed a service return into the net.

But Federer showed his class in the final set, taking it 6-3 despite showing signs of frailty on his serve which forced him to save four break points.

Federer — looking to fine tune his skills on the red clay of Istanbul ahead of the French Open later this month — said he was happy for the tougher-than-expected encounter.

“The point was to win the match,” said Federer. “It was a good match, although maybe I could have won it in two sets.”

“He (Gimeno-Traver) played well and fought hard. It gives me confidence to have played in a match like this,” he added.

But Federer admitted he had been “frustrated” with some of his play.

Federer will be looking to toughen his serve, which was broken twice by Gimeno-Traver and had a first serve percentage of just 64 percent.

In Saturday’s semifinal, Federer will meet Diego Schwartzmann of Argentina who overcame fourth seed Santiago Giraldo of Chile in a bizarrely upside down match 0-6, 6-2, 6-2.

He remains on course to meet second seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria in Sunday’s final after the world number 11 overcame Ivan Dodig of Croatia in straight sets 6-4, 6-3.

The Istanbul Open is the first ever ATP World Tour event held in Turkey.

Kyrgios in last four

In Estoril, Portugal, Australia’s Nick Kyrgios powered into his first ATP semifinal on Friday, beating Dutchman Robin Haase 6-3, 6-4 at the Estoril Open.

The seventh-seeded Kyrgios, ranked 46th and playing only his second event after returning from six weeks to rest an ankle injury, will next play Pablo Carreno Busta for a spot in the Sunday title match.

The clay-courting Spaniard put out Luxembourg’s eighth seed Gilles Muller 6-2, 6-4 in his quarterfinal.

Kyrgios, who turned 20 at the start of the week, has played quarterfinals at Wimbledon and at the Australian Open but has never been able to connect on his big game at smaller ATP World Tour events.

Another young gun whose potential has been recently hyped was playing later on the Portuguese clay with 18-year-old Croatian Borna Coric facing experienced Spanish campaigner Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, the 31-year-old winner of last weekend’s Bucharest title.

Washed out

In Munich, the quarterfinals of the BMW Open were washed out by rain on Friday and rescheduled for Saturday.

The quarterfinals, including top-seeded Andy Murray’s match against Lukas Rosol, will be in the morning, with the semifinals to follow in the afternoon.

The organizers waited for several hours for the rain to stop, and eventually gave up.