Agence France-Presse
Madrid, May 7: World No.1 Novak Djokovic eased into the semifinals of Madrid Masters with a 6-3, 6-4 over 11th seed Milos Raonic here Saturday.
Djokovic remained on course for his fifth title of the season by extending his unbeaten record over Raonic to seven matches. The Serb created regular opportunities to break despite the Canadian’s booming serve, but needed just one break in each set to set up a semifinal meeting with Kei Nishikori.
The Japanese came from a set down to beat Australian Nick Kyrgios 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/1), 6-3. Nishikori had to wait until the fourth game of the final set to finally break the Kyrgios serve after the first two sets were shared in tie-breaks.
In the women’s Madrid Open, World No.7 Simona Halep reached her first final of the season in comprehensive fashion with a 6-2, 6-0 thrashing of Australian Sam Stosur.
Halep will face Dominika Cibulkova in Saturday’s final after the Slovakian celebrated her 27th birthday in similar style with a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of American qualifier Louisa Chirico.
Former US Open champion Stosur managed just 13 points in the final 10 games having led the first set 2-1 as Halep showed the type of form which saw her reach number two in the world last year.
Cibulkova made the most of Chirico’s inexperience on her first WTA semifinal as she dominated the World No 130 throughout to seal victory after just an hour on court.
