Lopez beats Kyrgios in Malaysian Open semifinals

The 33-year-old will next be battling Germany’s Benjamin Becker who beat fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov from Bulgaria 6-4 7-6 (7-3) in an earlier quarter-final match.

“I was struggling with my overall game because I need time to get back my rhythm at the beginning”.

Nick Kyrgios is through to the quarter-finals of the ongoing Malaysian Open after sealing a comfortable straight sets win over Tatsuma Ito.

The 20-year-old Aussie of Greek-Malaysian parentage who is chasing his first ATP title, fell just short as the 34-year-old Lopez played unbelievable tennis to win 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5) at the Putra Stadium on Saturday.

Both Kyrgios and Karlovic won 75 per cent of their service points and the match saw no breaks of serve as Kyrgios booked a semi-final meeting with Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.

“Today I didn’t serve so well, but the most important thing is I was good in my mind and I’m very focused”, said Ferrer. “I usually only get upset when something stupid happens on court”, said the world No.41.

In the day’s other semi-final, Ferrer’s compatriot Lopez faces 41-ranked Nick Kyrgios. “It’s not easy to come from a tough trip and play a first round, but I was feeling very happy with the way I played”.

“I came out strongly and I was comfortable throughout the game”, Kyrgios said. “After 5-4 with two, three insane points …” The third-seeded Croatian cracked 11 of his 18 aces in the last set.

“Experience is always a good thing to have but today I think the match could have gone either way”, he stated.

The last time Lopez beat Ferrer was at Shanghai in 2009.