The 20-year-old fired down 11 aces against the Croatian, the same player he defeated in the second round of the 2015 Australian Open in January, to win 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-2) in 84 minutes.

He will now face world No.17 Feliciano Lopez on Saturday for a place in Sunday's final. The Spaniard came back from a set down in his quarter-final to defeat Canadian Vasek Pospisil 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-2.

Kyrgios, whose mother Nill hails from Malaysia, said last week he loved returning 'home' to play in the tournament.

"It is definitely a special tournament, for me and for my mum. I have a lot of relatives in Malaysia and I would hate to let them all down," the world No.42 said. "I enjoyed my time in KL last time and felt really comfortable. This will be my second time here, so I'm already quite used to the conditions."

Grigor Dimitrov was due to take on Benjamin Becker and top seed David Ferrer face Mikhail Kukushkin in the other quarter-finals overnight.

Meanwhile, Venus Williams beat Roberta Vinci in a hard-fought three-set match, settling a score on behalf of her sister Serena, to reach the Wuhan Open final in China.

The seven-time grand slam winner edged past Vinci in three sets 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4).

It was Vinci's second consecutive semi-final against a member of the Williams family, after downing world No.1 Serena in the US Open last month.

Venus will now meet Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza or Angelique Kerber in the final.