Cilic ousts Berdych to reach Marseille semi-final

Croatia's Marin Cilic advanced to the semi-finals of the Marseille ATP tournament on Friday by ousting second seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Repubic in straight sets.

The 28th-ranked Cilic dominated the duel between the two big servers to come through 6-3, 6-4 winner for the first time in three meetings with the top ten ranked Berdych, who was making his return after withdrawing from Rotterdam last week with flu.

The Croat will next meet the winner of the tie between home hope Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and third seed Mikhail Youzhny later Friday, with top seed Robin Soderling of Sweden up against eighth-seeded Frenchman Michael Llodra.