DUBAI — Stan Wawrinka advanced to the Dubai Tennis Championships final after Nick Kyrgios of Australia retired during their semifinal with a back injury Friday.
Wawrinka was leading 6-4, 3-0 at the time.
He will be looking for his second title of the year when he plays unseeded Marcos Baghdatis, who beat sixth-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain 3-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-1.
For the second day in a row, Kyrgios received treatment on his back during a match. On Friday, the physiotherapist came to the court during the seventh game changeover.
The 20-year-old Kyrgios became the youngest active player to win an ATP Tour title, at Marseille last week.
"It's been bothering me the last couple of days," Kyrgios said. "I had a bit of a hip injury at the start of Marseille. That was still sort of bothering me a little bit. I have been feeling so bad every day, like I've got some viral infection, as well."
Kyrgios is the second significant retirement in two days at Dubai. Novak Djokovic retired from his quarterfinal with infected eyes Thursday.
Wawrinka took a commanding 4-1 lead in the first set, but Kyrgios fought back to even the score at 4-4. From that point, Wawrinka won the final five games.
"He wasn't really there from the beginning, wasn't serving his best," Wawrinka said. "You never know what to expect, because again, as you see when he broke me back at 3-4 he was playing really well."
The Swiss was two points away from defeat in the first round against Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine.
"If you look from the beginning of the week I was not playing great at all," Wawrinka said. "But I could still improve, and I'm happy I did." — Agencies
