Hometown favorite Kei Nishikori secured a place in the last four of the Japan Open when he beat up-and-coming Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-3 Friday night.

Nishikori will face France's Richard Gasquet, who eliminated Kevin Anderson of South Africa 7-6(6), 7-6(4) in the day's other quarterfinal match, on Saturday. Canadian Denis Shapovalov will play Daniil Medvedev of Russia in the other semifinal.

The match between the 28-year-old Nishikori and the 20-year-old Greek was a battle between youth versus experience, with 2012 and 2014 winner Nishikori delighting the fans by closing out the 1-hour, 23-minute contest with a cross-court forehand at Musashino Forest Sport Plaza.

In the pair's first meeting, the third-seeded Nishikori survived an early scare -- and only real scare -- when the fifth-seeded Tsitsipas held in the third game in the opening set with an untouchable 200-kilometer-per-hour serve that clocked to go up 2-1.

But Nishikori fought back to level it up and took control the rest of the way, hitting down-the-line shots that frustrated his opponent. Tsitsipas challenged a few calls and was visibly fatigued in the second set when he failed to convert a break point.

"I had strong follow-throughs from start to end and played confidently. He made some mistakes too," Nishikori said.

"I played good return games so I was able to relax during my service games. I played good tennis today. I won key points, overcame tough situations and finished by attacking aggressively," he said.

Nishikori, ranked 12th in the world, withdrew from the ATP 500 series event held annually in Tokyo last year because of a wrist injury.

Also on Friday, the Japan-German duo of Ben McLachlan and Jan-Lennard Struff defeated the Dutch team of Robin Haase and Matwe Middlekoop 6-1, 6-4 to reach the doubles final. It is the second straight doubles final for McLachlan, a New Zealander whose mother is Japanese. On Sunday, he won the Shenzhen Open doubles title in China with Britain's Joe Salisbury.

This year, the men's tournament is being held indoors for the first time, since the Ariake Coliseum is undergoing renovations ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.