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Mannarino, 29, will face fourth seed David
Goffin after the in-form Belgian eked out a 7-6(3) 7-6(6)
victory over Argentina's Diego Schwartzman in the first
semi-final.
In a fiercely-contested match, Cilic's powerful groundstrokes
gave him a 5-3 lead in the first set but Mannarino fought back
to force a tiebreak, which the Frenchman led 4-2 before losing
five of the next six points.
Mannarino took advantage of Cilic's weaker backhand to take a
5-3 lead and although he lost his next service game, the
29-year-old broke the Croatian's serve to win the second set.
Mannarino won seven straight games to beat world number five
Cilic and secure his first win over a player ranked in the
world's top five.
Goffin and Schwartzman both saved break points as the first set
went to a tiebreak and with the score tied at 4-4, the
eighth-seeded Schwartzman made three straight errors to gift his
opponent the set.
Belgian Goffin served for the match in the 10th game of the
second set but a forehand error enabled Schwartzman to break
back and force another tiebreak.
Goffin sealed victory on his second match point to extend his
winning streak to eight matches after his Shenzhen Open triumph
last week.
He moved up to 10th in the Race to London rankings and is still
in contention for a place in the eight-man season-ending
tournament.
(Reporting by Aditi Prakash in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
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