Nole booked his place in the Sony Ericsson Open semi-finals!
World no.1 needed 1 hour and 53 minutes to eliminate no.5 seed David Ferrer 6-2, 7-6(1) and progress to the last four of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event.
Novak raced through the opening set with two breaks of serve in just 33 minutes.
Second set was much more competitive with stunning points and long rallies. The two players traded breaks twice, but after 80 minutes of fearsome hitting, the defending champion clinched the match in a tie-breaker 7-1.
Match statistics: aces (5-2), double faults (1-2), winners (20-13), unforced errors (27-29), total points won (77-57).
Djokovic capitalised on 4 of his 7 break points to advance past the Spaniard and improve advantage in their head to head encounters to 8-5.
“He’s like a wall on the court. Gets a lot of balls back. He always makes you play an extra shot,” said Novak. “So that’s something that I was expecting. He was more than impressive, especially in his last match against del Potro. I needed to play well and aggressive and step into the court from the first point. That’s what I did.”
The 24-year-old Serbian star will face no.21 seed Juan Monaco for a place in the finals. The Argentine upset 8th-seeded American Mardy Fish 6-1, 6-3.
Novak owns a 4-0 record against the Tandil native. They last met in Paris 2010 (6-4, 6-3).
Rafael Nadal (2) will take on Andy Murray (4) in the first semi-final on Friday at 15.00 local time.
Nole vs Monaco match is scheduled at 19.00 (Saturday at 01.00 CET).
