Third seed and local favourite Mikhail Youzhny continued his impressive form with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky to reach the semifinals of the 2009 Kremlin Cup, being played here in Moscow, Russia.

Youzhny spent just 71 minutes on court to register the 6-3, 6-3 win with the help of 56% break point conversion and 5 aces. Youzhny next faces sixth seeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic who breezed past American Robby Ginepri with an identical victory in exactly the same amount of time spent on court.

“It is such a big win for me as I had lost to him every time we played," said Tipsarevic. "I usually complicate things for myself on court but today I did everything well. My new coach (Dirk Hordorff) has helped me to find a way to express my game."

The other semifinal is confirmed to be contested between qualifiers as both Illya Marchenko and Mikhail Kukushkin registered tough three set victories over their respective opponents to set up the unusual clash at such a stage in a tournament.

Kukushkin, who beat fifth seed Pablo Cuevas 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 described his win today as the best of his career - "This is the best win of my career. I kept fighting even when I was 4-1 down in the final set. It was like my first round against Fabio Fognini, when I was 4-2 down in the final set."

Marchenko, on the other hand, survived an opening set bagle to score a 0-6, 6-2, 6-3 win in almost one hour and 35 minutes of play over local star Evgeny Korolev, who took out two time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin yesterday.

"I kept believing in myself, that’s what I have been doing the last few months," said Marchenko. "In the first set I was just too nervous and not used to the court. It was the first time I had played an ATP World Tour main-draw match on Centre Court. After I lost the first set 6-0, I still believed I could win."