Roger Federer moved to within one victory of capturing his eighth Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title, which could represent the 100th tour-level crown of his career, on Friday night. The Swiss superstar cruised past Borna Coric at the Aviation Club in a comprehensive 6-2, 6-2 victory over 67 minutes for a shot at history.

If the Swiss superstar is to join Jimmy Connors (109 titles) as the second man in the Open Era to reach a century of singles trophies, he will have to snap the eight-match winning streak of Stefanos Tsitsipas, the reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champions. Last month, Tsitsipas beat Federer 6-7(11), 7-6(3), 7-5, 7-6(5) in the Australian Open fourth round.

Federer won five of the first six games against Coric and converted his fourth set-point chance at 5-2 with an unreturned serve to complete the 32-minute opener. The second-seeded Swiss, who continued his policy of attacking the net and playing a number of drop shots, was gifted the opening game of the second set when Coric struck a forehand wide.

Coric’s error count increased and at 2-4, 30/40, a wild forehand spelled the end for the sixth-seeded Croatian. Federer wrapped up his seventh victory in eight matches this year with an ace for a place in his 152nd tour-level final (99-52 record).

Coric, now 6-3 on the season, had recorded three consecutive third-set tie-break victories in Dubai over lucky loser Jiri Vesely, Tomas Berdych and Nikoloz Basilashvili.

You may often wonder what players have in their bags as they walk out onto court. In the early hours of Friday morning, moments after beating John Millman 7-6(2), 6-7(4), 7-6(4), John Isner shed some light on the subject after he booked his place in the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC semi-finals.

Shortly after 2:30 a.m. local time, the American explained, “I feel very tired, 2:30 in the morning. I think I went through 10 shirts, 14 hats, two shoes, three pairs of shorts and three pairs of socks.”

Isner grit it teeth and fired down 38 aces in the final match of the day, saving two set points at 3-5, 15/40 in the first set of his victory over eighth seed Millman over three hours and six minutes on Cancha Central.

The third-seeded Isner will now play Nick Kyrgios on Friday. The pair is even at 2-2 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head. “We’ve played a handful of times, I’ve seen his matches this week,” said Isner. “I’ve won a couple, he’s won a couple. He’s an incredible talent, everyone knows that. So it will be a fun match.”

In a match that started with blood, ended with cramps and was filled with gripping drama for more than two-and-a-half hours, Nick Kyrgios outlasted Stan Wawrinka 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-4 on Thursday to reach the semi-finals at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC. Kyrgios will play fellow Aussie John Millman or third seed John Isner of the United States in the next round.

More to come…

Alexander Zverev continues to have Alex de Minaur’s number. The German improved his FedEx ATP Head2Head against the #NextGenATP Aussie to 4-0 with a convincing 6-4, 6-4 win on Thursday to reach the semi-finals of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC.

“We played three times last year and we’re going to play many more times in the future. He’s a great young player with a lot of potential,” said Zverev. “It’s never easy to play him, especially after last night (vs. Ferrer), which was a very emotional match for me and the crowd. I’m happy to get through.”

The second seed is through to the last four in Acapulco for the second straight year. He hasn’t dropped a set in three matches this week and has been especially impressive on serve. Zverev fired 13 aces and won 91 per cent (29/32) of first-serve points against de Minaur, requiring a single break in each set to advance in 75 minutes.

Although de Minaur is off to an impressive start this season, including winning his first title last month at the Sydney International (d. Seppi) and building an 11-3 record overall, he is now 0-11 against Top 10 players. 

Next up for Zverev is Brit Cameron Norrie, who reached his first ATP 500 semi-final by easing past American Mackenzie McDonald 6-3, 6-2. McDonald was far from his best and finished the day with 13 winners to 35 unforced errors, but Norrie avoided complicating matters by saving all four break points he faced. The Brit, a runner-up last month at the ASB Classic (l. to Sandgren), improves to 8-4 this season.

“I was nervous. It was a big opportunity for both of us, but I played really solid today. I got a lot of rhythm from my match yesterday against Diego [Schwartzman] and I’m really stoked to get into my first [ATP 500] semi-final,” said Norrie. “I’ve got nothing to lose tomorrow and all the pressure is on [Zverev].”