CINCINNATI, August 18, 2018 (News Wires) - World number one Simona Halep pulled double duty at the weather-hit Cincinnati Masters in Ohio, beating Ashleigh Barty then Lesia Tsurenko to claim a place in the semi-finals. Novak Djokovic also won his second match of the day to set up a semi-final clash with Marin Cilic. Roger Federer edged past Swiss tennis player Stanislas Wawrinka to enter the semi-final of the ongoing Cincinnati Open on Saturday. Djokovic, a five-time finalist here who has never broken through, is aiming to lift the trophy at the only one of the Masters 1000 series events that he has never won. The Serb tenth seed followed up a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 third-round defeat of holder Grigor Dimitrov earlier in the day of a rainy week by beating Milos Raonic 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.It was the ninth win without a loss for Djokovic in the series with the Canadian. "I've played five finals here," Djokovic said. "But I do wish to win the title. I'm here to enjoy a sport that I love, I've got plenty of motivation. I'm in a good position, so I'll take it step by step." Djokovic had to come from behind in the first and third sets, and helped seal the victory with a break for 5-3 in the third. "Milos is one of the best servers in the game," Djokovic said. "Just a few points decided the winner. "It's tough to play against someone serving so big."Cilic put out Spanish 13th seed Pablo Carreno Busta 7-6 (9/7), 6-4. "I haven't played any matches on the centre court. I feel and I heard that it's completely different. It's much faster," Cilic said. "Definitely Novak is playing really well. His level was definitely high and he's in definitely really good form. "We played tough match in Queen's, but that's grass and definitely different. So I have to get ready and give it a full shot." The 37-year-old Federer thrashed Wawrinka 6-7(2), 7-6(6), 6-2 to continue with his impressive record against the fellow countryman. Reflecting on the loss, Wawrinka said that he is happy to play a high-level tennis and further asserted that he needs to keep improving his game. "For sure it was a great level. I think I'm playing great in general. I'm playing better every day, every week. Last week was really important and really good for myself, for my tennis, for my confidence.. I'm happy to see where I am right now. I had a tough match last week against Rafa. Close match, also. Today was against Roger. They are No. 1 and No. 2 in the world. I beat Schwartzman, I beat Nishikori, so the level is good," ATP website quoted Wawrinka, as saying. "I need to keep improving, keep working, keep doing the right thing and keep pushing myself. For sure tonight I'm sad and disappointed to lose, but for me it's a big victory for myself after what I had last year. It was exactly one year ago. To see where I was also few weeks ago, I'm really happy to be here," he added. In other matches of the day, former world number one Novak Djokovic defeated Milos Raonic of Canada 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 to book a spot in the semi-final of the tournament. After beating Australian Barty 7-5 6-4 earlier in the day, Women's top seed Halep took her winning streak to eight matches with a 6-4 6-1 win over Tsurenko, who had triple break point to take a 5-1 lead in the first set but could not capitalise and saw the match swing away from her. The top seed was unstoppable once she found her rhythm and confidence, winning 11 of the final 12 games to continue her winning streak stretching back to last week's Rogers Cup. "It was a tough day," said the Romanian. "I'm really tired but I'm happy that I could win both. "After I won Montreal, I said that I want to come here to win some more matches, because after winning a title is always the feeling that 'let's do more.'" Her semi-final opponent Sabalenka had staved off match points in her two previous matches and managed to do it again on Friday, using her big serve to wriggle out of trouble against 13th seeded Keys. Eighth seed Kvitova recovered from going down an early break in the third set to beat Belgian Elise Mertens 7-5 5-7 6-3. "Luckily I (had) good second serves, which was very important for me to put it back to the court and play some rallies," said the Czech. "I really need to play more aggressive. That's how I made those important points."Bertens trailed 4-1 in the opening set against Ukrainian fifth seed Elina Svitolina but it was one-way traffic once the Dutch player's serve clicked into gear and she closed out the match 6-4 6-3.
