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Stan Wawrinka reaches Chennai Open semis, Paes sails to double's final

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Twice champion Stanislas Wawrinka sailed into the Chennai Open semi-finals on Friday, staving off Gilles Mueller's late challenge en route to a 6-2 7-6(4) victory while double's Top seeds Leander Paes and Raven Klaasen eased into the men's doubles final with a clinical win over Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 

In their first ever meeting, Australian Open champion Wawrinka broke his opponent from Luxembourg in the opening game and pocketed the first set of the quarter-final quickly. Mueller, however, refused to throw in the towel and took a 4-2 lead in the second before Wawrinka rallied to level it 4-4 and force a tie-breaker in which the Swiss world number four prevailed.

"Gilles is a big-server, left, it's tough returning but I'm happy," Wawrinka, who meets fourth seed David Goffin in the semi-final, said in a courtside interview. "I was really aggressive and I'm happy the way I finished the match, the way I'm playing in general," said Wawrinka who hit 29 winners, six more than his opponent.

Spaniard Roberto Bautista will meet Slovenia's Aljaz Bedene in Saturday's other semi-final.

The Indo-South African had little difficulty in beating the Spaniards 6-3 6-3 on the main court of the SDAT Tennis Stadium. Paes has already won the Chennai Open six times with Janko Tipsarevic (2012) and Mahesh Bhupathi (2011, 2002, 1999, 1998, 1997)

Paes-Klaasen await the winner of the second semifinal between Purav Raja-Adil Shamasdin and Yen Hsun Lu-Jonathan Marray to be played on Saturday.

At the post-match on court interview, Paes was expectedly asked about his seventh title in Chennai. "I don't really worry about the numbers. For me it is another week in Chennai. It is great to be here and another win will be awesome."

Talking about his partnership with Klaasen, Paes said "Today was just a little taste of what we can do. Yesterday was a tough match. Really happy to be in the final". On Friday, Paes ended up on the winning side against estranged partner Mahesh Bhupathi, who was playing his first tournament since March 2013.

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