DUBAI: Philip Kohlschreiber ended the run of Tunisian wild card Malek Jaziri, winning 6-2, 6-3 to earn his 300th ATP World Tour singles victory and move into the semi-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. It is the first time that Kohlschreiber has advanced beyond the second round in his six appearances at the event.

The No.7 seed looked the stronger player right from the start, breaking his opponent’s serve at love to lead 2-0 before breaking again for the first set. Jaziri held Kohlschreiber at bay in the second set until again conceding his serve to love at 4-3.

“I think I had a very solid and good performance today,” said Kohlschreiber. “We had some really good rallies. My key or my goal was always to move him around a lot. He was playing quite defensive, especially on the backhand side. Well, that’s what I’m doing pretty well, you know, moving around my opponent, trying to play with good angles, and, yeah, I was very solid from the baseline. I took the chances, you know, tried to be aggressive.”

Novak Djokovic was denied his 550th ATP World Tour win when two-time Dubai finalist Mikhail Youzhny withdrew with illness, giving the defending champion a walkover into Friday’s semifinals. Roger Federer eased past Lukas Rosol 6-2, 6-2 to make the last four.