World no.2 Novak Djokovic moved into the last four at the Shanghai Rolex Masters tennis event on Friday.
The 26-year-old Serb rallied to beat Gael Monfils 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4 in two hours and 22 minutes, improving his perfect Head2Head record against the Frenchman to 9-0.
Players twice exchanged breaks in the opening set, before the Paris native clinched the tie-breaker 7-4.
The defending champion quickly regrouped and clinched the second set 6-2.
In the decider, Nole converted a crucial break in the seventh game and secured his 60th win of the season three games later.
“I started serving quite badly, but I did not commit many unforced errors,” said Djokovic. “I was serving better as the match went on. Today was a very physical match and very intense. We played many rallies. I’m glad that I made it through.”
Novak won 79 per cent of his first service points and broke Monfils five times from eight opportunities, dropping serve twice during the quarter-final encounter.
Match statistics: aces (4-9), double faults (1-3), winners (31-25), unforced errors (34-34), total points won (102-87).
Saturday’s semi-finals in Shanghai will pit the reigning Australian Open champion Djokovic against seventh-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (10.30 CET), and Juan Martin del Potro (ARG, 6) against Rafael Nadal (ESP, 2).
Novak has won the last six meetings with Tsonga (10-5 H2H record), the most recent in quarter-finals of the 2013 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (6-3, 6-1).
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