Stan Wawrinka kept his hopes of a semi-final berth alive with a straight-sets victory over Marin Cilic at the ATP World Tour Finals on Wednesday night. The Swiss superstar helped his chances of finishing the year ranked third and of reaching a fourth-straight semi-final at the O2 with a 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-3) victory. Six months half price Upgrade to Sky Sports to watch Man Utd v Arsenal on Saturday and get the first six months half price Cilic was beaten in straight sets by Andy Murray in his John McEnroe Group opener while Wawrinka lost to Kei Nishikori, meaning whoever lost their second match would almost certainly be heading home. The win helped US Open champion Wawrinka extend his head-to-head lead to 11-2, having now won his last seven matches against Cilic, who is out. Did you know... The last time a player lost his opening match and went on to win the title was in 2009 when Nikolay Davydenko surprised everyone to win at Londons O2 Arena. Shots of the matchWawrinka showed he is not just all about power as he lured Cilic into the net before showing a delicious touch to lob him. Wawrinka showed that hes not all about power with this delicate lob... But when it does come to pure power, Wawrinka can produce it when it most matters - especially on the backhand side. But the Swiss star does possess an awful lot of power on that missile of a backhand... Expert analysisGreg Rusedski: Hes back in business. He played great tonight. Cilic played him into form. Hes very confident going up against Marin because Marin isnt willing to come forward which allowed him to hit many groundstrokes and get a feeling for the ball. By the end of it, he was playing lights out tennis. Its not what Andy Murray wanted to see, an in-form Wawrinka on Friday.Peter Fleming: This match seemed to turn his game around. He was hitting the ball well and hes not going to be an easy guy to put out. Wawrinka joins Leif Shiras at the SkyPad to examine his victory over Cilic The matchThere was very little to choose between the two players, who both packed a punch with some blistering winners. Cilic had made very few inroads into Wawrinkas serve until he earned a set point at 5-4. However, the Swiss star quickly shut the door with a brave 100mph second serve into the body. The Wawrinka backhand was at its blistering best in the second set Quite predictably, it headed into a tiebreak, and it was the third seed who started forcing the errors from Cilics racket, which was enough to take the set.Just when it looked as though Wawrinka had the momentum, Cilic struck in the opening game of the second set. Wawrinka was happy to get his first victory in London after defeating Cilic Despite being hampered by a knee injury recently, the 31-year-old is determined to finish his season on a high, and responded with some fearsome hitting of his own to level in the fourth game.It was enough to send the tight contest into another tiebreaker. And Wawrinka struck a huge blow with an unstoppable 98mph forehand for the mini-break which he never relinquished to set up a mouth-watering clash against Murray. Heres the moment Wawrinka beat Cilic in straight sets Following his loss to Murray and now Wawrinka, Cilic is 0-5 at the ATP World Tour Finals.Check our game-by-game coverage from all group matches at the ATP World Tour Finals in London - including Andy Murray v Stan Wawrinka on Friday - on skysports.com/tennis, our app for mobile devices and iPad and our Twitter account @skysportstennis.Upgrade to Sky Sports now to watch Man Utd v Arsenal this Saturday and get the first six months half price! Also See: As it happened... Murray beats Nishikori in epic One of the best matches ever Monfils pulls out of ATP finals Wholesale Running Shoes Australia . -- Aldon Smith believes he is on the path to being sober for good. Running Shoes Clearance Australia . The Hall of Fame defenceman told Landsberg that he believes fighting still has a place in todays game, but thinks staged fighting needs be outlawed. http://www.runningshoesaustraliawholesale.com/ . Houston won 3-0 to advance to face New York in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Last in the game, Di Vaio and Romero got into a shoving match with several Houston players. Romero appeared to elbow and kick Houston defender Kofi Sarkodie. Sports Shoes Australia Cheap .Y. - Rob Manfred was promoted Monday to Major League Baseballs chief operating officer, which may make him a candidate to succeed Bud Selig as commissioner. Wholesale Sports Shoes Australia . -- In one brief spurt, Brazil turned a close game into a rout and proved again it will be a strong World Cup favourite. Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova registered a straight-sets victory at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo after defeating Chinas Chen Liang and Zhaoxuan Yang 6-1, 6-1 in the final on Saturday.It was a good week and it was great to peak in the final, of course, Sania told ESPN after the win. The conditions were tough because of the rain all week, [but] we adjusted well and are happy to win our second title together. We played a very solid match today.This was Sania and Strycovas third tournament together. Last month, Sania and her new partner Strycova clinched the Cincinnati Open title with a 7-5, 6-4 win in the final against Martina Hingis and Coco Vandeweghe. However, the pair suffered a quarterfinal exit in the US Open, going down in straight sets to Caroline Garcia and Kristinna Mladenovic.ddddddddddddNext week, Sania and Strycova will play at the Wuhan Open -- which the Indian player had won with Hingis last year.This is Sanias third Japan Open title in four years. Having won the Japan Open title in 2013 and 2014 with Cara Black, Sania had chosen to skip the tournament last year.Sania has won eight WTA titles so far in 2016, including a Grand Slam with former partner Hingis at the Australian Open. She also registered wins at the Brisbane International, Sydney International, St. Petersburg, Italian Open and Connecticut Open.Sania has now won 40 doubles titles in her career, of which 18 have come since the beginning of 2015. ' ' '