Djokovic beats Murray to face Nishikori in Semis of US Open

NEW YORK: World No.1 Novak Djokovic defeated his childhood rival Andy Murray 7-6 (7/1), 6-7 (1/7), 6-2, 6-4 in a great clash which lasted for 3 hours 32 minutes, to face Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the semi-final of US Open.

Serbia’s Djokovic and 2011 US Open winner knocked out Murray from the tournament to qualify for his eight consecutive US Open semi-final, this was their 21st meeting and 13 of them are won by Djokovic and it was his 50th victory at Flushing Meadows.

Both former champions Djokovic and Murray played a record equalling 4 hours 54 minutes final match of US Open back in 2012, which was won the Scot. In the quarter-final it was looking as if they both will break their own record as they took 2 hours to complete their first two sets of the match.

After winning the match Djokovic said, ‘We both gave our best and at times the tennis was not nice but that was due to the intense physical battle in the first two sets, I didn’t expect anything less from Andy. Our last few matches have been three and four hours and he has a lot of quality on all sorts of surfaces. I knew it would be a tough match and that the more aggressive player would win.’

Talking about his opponent in the semi-final Djokovic said, ‘It’s great for Kei and Japan for him to be in the semi-final. He serves and moves very well.’

World No.10 Nishikori defeated reigning Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (9/7), 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 to become first Japanese player to qualify for the semi-finals in 96 years. Nishikori and Djokovic are 1-1 in their career meetings, but they last met three years ago.