seeded Kevin Anderson and sixth-seeded Adrian Mannarino set up a semifinal showdown between the last two seeded players at the SA Open as they both cruised through to the last four in straight sets Friday. Home favorite Anderson dropped just four games in a one-sided 6-3, 6-1 win over Slovakia's Karol Beck in less than an hour. The 24-year-old Anderson mixed powerful serves with clever drop shots and led 10-3 on winners for a place in the last four at Montecasino — his second ATP semifinal. Mannarino of France was also too strong for Canada's Frank Dancevic to go through 6-3, 6-2 in just 54 minutes. Dancevic beat defending champion and top-seeded Feliciano Lopez in the first round, but Mannarino, 22, currently at a career-high ranking of No. 67, broke three times and powered past his unseeded challenger. India's Somdev Devvarman and South African wild card Izak van der Merwe complete the semifinal lineup, with all four players searching for a first career ATP title. The unseeded Devvarman improved his record to 3-0 over Rik de Voest, another South African wild card entrant, with a comeback 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1 win for a place in his second ATP semi. Van der Merwe reached a first ATP semifinal when he beat Simon Greul of Germany 7-6 (5), 6-2, continuing a strong showing this week from local players. Giraldo in semis In Chile, Colombian Santiago Giraldo kept rolling in his strong start to the season, defeating fourth-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina 6-4, 6-3 Friday to reach the semifinals of the Movistar Open. The eighth-seeded Giraldo has reached the quarterfinals — or better — three times in the first five weeks of the season. Three other quarterfinals were played later Friday: No. 7-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy against No. 3-seeded Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, Horacio Zeballos of Argentina against No. 5-seeded Potito Starace of Italy, and No. 6-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain playing Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina. Cilic loses at Zagreb In Croatia, fifth-seeded German Florian Mayer defeated two-time defending champion Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-4 in the biggest upset so far at the Zagreb Indoors Friday. The top-seeded Croat reached 15-40 in the opening game of the match, before Mayer won 12 consecutive points and eventually the set. The players exchanged breaks in the three opening games of the second set, with Mayer taking the advantage and going on to complete the victory. In the last match of the day, unseeded Ivan Dodig of Croatia beat second-seeded countryman Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 6-4. Eighth-seeded Michael Berrer joined fellow German Mayer in the semifinals when fourth-seeded Richard Gasquet retired at 5-2 down in the first set because of a shoulder injury. In the other semi, Dodig will play third-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez from Spain who defeated American Alex Bogomolov 6-2, 7-6 (6).
