Raonic reaches semifinals at Brisbane International

Roger Federer has shaken off a strong challenge from Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov and his lingering illness to move into the Brisbane International’s final four. He had asked organizers to put his first match back a day.

Fatigue began to set in after that and Dimitrov pounced in the second, breaking Federer to take a 4-3 lead before the top seed found a way to take it to a tie-break. “Tomorrow is going to be tougher”.

“When Ivan got available towards the end of the season, that’s when I called him up”. I am where I want to be. Tomorrow we’ll see. He’s (Dimitrov) had a tough grind today, but he’s extremely match-tough. I expect him to be fresh again tomorrow. “My whole family had it. I was the last guy to get it, so I knew what I was getting into when I was not feeling well”.

Dimitrov came back to beat Viktor Troicki.

“That was very, very special to me”, Tomic said. “But it was good”.

“Maybe he didn’t have his best finish of the match today, but I enjoyed it anyways”. “I was happy I didn’t mess it up”.

Raonic will provide another stern examination of those top-10 credentials after the Canadian easily took down France’s Lucas Pouille 6-4 6-4.

He achieved the milestone in the final here past year, when he beat Milos Raonic and shared the podium with some of the players he revered from a previous era. “I’m further along than where I was (last year)”, he said.

Still battling the flu bug that has hampered his Australian Open preparations, defending champion Federer was occasionally off-colour against the improved Dimitrov but ultimately prevailed 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4 on Pat Rafter Arena on Friday night.

Azarenka will come up against American qualifier Samantha Crawford for a place in the final and the chance to add another Brisbane title to her 2009 success.

Federer, after showing signs of fatigue in the second, took a quick break before the third, and then went on a roll to set up three match points in the ninth game.

Azarenka, who was limited to 23 tournaments across the last two seasons because of injuries, was broken once in each set but converted seven of her 11 breakpoint chances against Vinci, who ended Serena Williams’ bid for a true Grand Slam in the U.S. Open semifinals. “I haven’t been in the semi-finals in a while, which is great, too”.

Watson lost just four points on her serve in the first set and broke Lisicki three times.

Azarenka set her stall out on the opening point, arrowing a backhand return into the corner.

“I thought I played really well considering, and caught sort of a second wind in the third set”.

Fourth seed Angelique Kerber remains the highest-ranked player in the women’s draw after she beat Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 6-4.

“I think it was a good match from both of us”, Kerber said.