Agence France Presse
Shanghai, Oct 16: Novak Djokovic eased into the Shanghai Masters semifinals here Friday after a brilliant start by Bernard Tomic fizzled into one of the Australian’s trademark damp squibs. Djokovic will meet his rival from teenage days, Andy Murray. The other semifinal will see a resurgent Rafael Nadal taking on Frenchman Jo Wilfried Tsonga.
Top-ranked Djokovic was pushed all the way in a thrilling opener but after he edged through the tie-break 8-6, it was plain sailing as Tomic capitulated 7-6 (8-6), 6-1.
The two swapped breaks early in the first set and with 20th-ranked Tomic standing up to Djokovic in the rallies, they were inseparable heading into the tie-break.
But Tomic’s head dropped after he limply netted on his opponent’s third set point and he was broken three times in a car-crash of a second set before double faulting on match point.
Earlier, Nadal’s renaissance took a big step forward as he whipped a flagging Stan Wawrinka for the loss of just three games. Nadal beat the World No.4 6-2, 6-1 to bring up his first win over a top five player in more than a year.
“For sure physically I felt the effect of last night (Thursday’s three-hour match against Marin Cilic), but also the past 10 days. I’ve been playing a lot, winning in Tokyo,” Wawrinka, who made 34 unforced errors in the match, said.
The Spaniard on the other hand said that he was happy with his form. “Things are going well. I did not play in any hard court semfinal prior coming to China and now I am playing two in a row,” said Nadal.
Nadal’s opponent in the last four, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also had to play out of his skin to subdue South Africa Kevin Anderson 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 6-4. However, second-seeded Andy Murray had no problems in shutting out the challenge of sixth seed Tomas Berdych three and one.
