BSEL, Oct 31 — Rafael Nadal reached the Swiss Indoors semi-finals yesterday with a hard-fought 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Marin Cilic, his third three-set victory this week.

The 14-time Grand Slam champion from Spain will next face France’s Richard Gasquet who survived 32 aces from Ivo Karlovic to keep his hopes of a World Tour Finals place alive with a 6-4, 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (8/6) win.   

Nadal, the third seed, began turning his match with 2014 US Open champion Cilic on its head after going down a set and a break. 

The third seed retrieved the break in the fourth game, 2-2, with a forehand winner.

He then took a 5-3 lead as Cilic delivered three double-faults to lose serve in an eight-minute game, opening the door for Nadal to push through.

With the sets level, Nadal went to work closing out the evening, breaking to start the third and concluding with another break as the Croatian ended with seven double-faults while losing serve four times in two and a quarter hours.

“I was just fighting, always trying to find solutions in a difficult situation,” said Nadal. 

“He played a great first set and it was tough to find any chances on return.

“I changed my position (on return) a bit in the second set and it seemed to work well. This was an important victory for me against someone playing very well.”

Cilic fired 37 winners but was undone by 49 unforced errors and is now 0-11 against top 10 players since winning the 2014 US Open.

The 29-year-old Nadal’s confidence is fast returning after a slow start to 2015 and some indifferent play in the ensuing months when his ranking slumped to a 10-year low.

“I needed to play with the right tactic and motivation and try to improve every day,” said Nadal. 

“It’s not easy but I’m working hard to find the feelings and find the mental strength to come back.”

Nadal has already qualified for the World Tour Finals to be staged in London from November 15 along with Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych.

Gasquet is chasing one of the last two spots remaining in the eight-player finale.

But the Frenchman with the picture-book, single-handed backhand faces almost impossible odds, needing to win titles this weekend and next week at his home Paris Masters.

Anything less will send rivals Kei Nishikori and Spain’s David Ferrer to the year-end showpiece.

Ferrer and Nishikori are both injured and neither is playing this week.

Six-time Basel champion Federer was bidding later today for the semis against Belgian David Goffin in a re-run of the 2014 final won easily by the Swiss in his hometown.

The winner of that match will play Jack Sock, who beat fellow American Donald Young 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.

Karlovic, 36, who beat second seed Wawrinka in the opening round, laid on his trademark serving attack against Gasquet, with the 11th ranked Frenchman defending in style.

Gasquet found himself level in the third set, which went to a tiebreaker.

The Frenchman saved a match point with a backhand pass down the line, then secured his own match-winning chance with a return at the feet of the two-metre-tall Karlovic.

Gasquet raised his racquet in triumph a point later as Karlovic sent a volley into the top of the net after almost two and a half hours. — AFP