The 22-year-old wild card, now based in Orlando, Fla., eliminated lucky loser Gage Brymer of Irvine, Calif., 6-0, 7-6 (5) in the $25,000 Tulsa (Okla.) Pro Championships on hardcourts.
Riffice has not lost a set in three matches this week. He improved to 6-1 since helping the University of Florida win its first NCAA men's team title and adding the singles crown last month in Orlando.
Riffice is scheduled to play unseeded Genaro Olivieri of Argentina on Saturday.
Olivieri, competing in his first tournament since late February, has played only four games in his last two matches. He received a walkover against Sekou Bangoura of Bradenton, Fla., in the second round and defeated wild card Govind Nanda, a UCLA rising senior from nearby Redlands, Calif., 4-0, retired in the quarters.
In the other semifinal, unseeded Nicolas Kicker, 28, of Argentina is set to play 34-year-old qualifier Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia in a matchup of former top-80 players.
Kicker, who returned in February after a suspension of almost three years for match-fixing, has reached the final in his last three tournaments.
Barrientos is playing in only his second tournament of the year. He lost in the first-round of a $25,000 clay-court tourney in Pensacola, Fla., last month.
ATP Tour — Fifth-seeded Tim Puetz of Germany and Michael Venus of New Zealand beat unseeded Austin Krajicek of Plano, Texas, and Sam Querrey, a 33-year-old San Francisco native, in the quarterfinals on grass in Halle, Germany.
ITF Men's Tour — All singles matches in the €132,280 ($160,315) Nottingham Trophy in England were — surprise! — rained out.
Mackenzie McDonald, a 26-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, is slated to meet Anton Matusevic, a 20-year-old wild card from Great Britain, on Saturday. The semifinals are scheduled for later in the day.
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