2013 Montreal top seed, Novak Djokovic, continued his Rogers Cup title defence with a convincing 6-1, 6-2 victory over no.7 seed Frenchman Richard Gasquet in just 52 minutes.
Nole made a confident start to his quarter-final match, racing through the opening set in 24 minutes with two breaks of serve.
The Serbian star carried his ruthless efficiency into the second set and broke Gasquet twice more to clinch his eighth win in their nine career meetings.
“In every part of my game I did almost my best. From the start of the match I tried to dictate the play on the court and be in control of the rallies. I’ve done really well,” Novak said. “Serve was very efficient, very high percentage of first serves, a lot of aces and free points. That’s something that obviously gives you confidence.”
Match statistics: aces (11-3), double faults (0-5), winners (29-10), unforced errors (12-20), total points won (56-29).
The two-time reigning champion (three overall) is playing at the Canada Open for the seventh time (26-3 record). He has now won 13 straight matches at the Masters event, taking his season record to a 42-6 mark.
This win marks his 35th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semis.
Novak will face no.4 seed Rafael Nadal (15-20 H2H record, 11-5 in hard court meetings) for a place in the Sunday’s final. The Spaniard defeated Australian Marinko Matosevic in straight sets.
The match is scheduled on Saturday at 20.00 local time (Sunday 02.00 CET).
About his semi-final duel with the Manacor native, Novak said: “For me it’s very important to try to start well tomorrow. If I’m playing as well as I did today, I think I have a chance to really win against anybody on this court.”
Photo: Getty Images
