Borna Coric faces a tough test to be ready to face Roger Federer in the semi-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships after his quarter-final with Nikoloz Basilashvili finished at 1am on Friday morning.
Coric is due back on court around 7pm on Friday, 18 hours after beating Basilashvili 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 on Centre Court at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium.
Coric, the No 6 seed, and Basilashvili, had not started until 10.30pm on Thursday night as both Gael Monfils and Stefanos Tsitsipas had to play three-setters to respectively beat Ricardas Berankis and Hubert Hurkacz, while there had been two rain breaks during Federer's 7-6, 6-4 success over Marton Fucsovics.
Coric and Basilashvili enjoyed an epic clash, which lasted 2 hours, 30 minutes, in front of some committed fans who saw the action through on a windy evening.
The Croatian dropped the first set to the world No 19 after being broken in the third game, but he dominated the second set thanks to winning the first five games.
The pair traded breaks in the final set before Coric cruised through the tie-breaker to take it 7-1.
Coric can take heart from the fact he has won his two most recent matches with Federer, both in 2018, at Halle and Shanghai.
Federer won their only previous clash in Dubai, trouncing him 6-2, 6-1 on his way to winning the most recent of his seven titles.
The first semi-final between Tsitspias and Monfils is due to start at 5pm.
