The top seed, who is biding to win his fifth title at The Aviation Club Tennis Centre, recorded a 6-2, 6-2 win over Russian Karen Khachanov in 67 minutes.<\/strong><\/p>\nNovak raced to a 5-1 lead after just 20 minutes of play, but was then broken as he served for the set. Khachanov’s mini-resurgence didn’t last long, as Nole broke him once again immediately to grab the opening set.<\/p>\n
The second set proved to be a one-way traffic for the Serbian star. The world no.1 broke the Russia’s seventh seed in the fourth and eighth games, outplaying his in-form rival in emphatic fashion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m feeling and playing well,\u201d<\/strong> said Djokovic. \u201cI like the conditions, but in windy conditions it\u2019s not easy to serve and find rhythm. I know it wasn\u2019t Karen\u2019s day, but I think I played a very solid match. I\u2019m trying to execute my game plan.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nMatch statistics: aces (2-3), double faults (2-4), total points won (60-34).<\/p>\n
Novak will next play against no.3 seed Gael Monfils who defeated his compatriot Richard Gasquet in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. <\/strong><\/p>\nThe 17-time Grand Slam titlist leads 16-0 in their ATP H2H series.<\/p>\n
Second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) and Daniel Evans (GBR) complete the semi-final line-up.<\/p>\n
Djokovic, who is now 39-6 at the ATP 500 event, has previously won the tournament in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013.<\/p>\n
Photo: Profimedia<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak improved his perfect W\/L record in 2020 to 16-0, following a 6-2, 6-2 victory over seventh seed Karen Khachanov (RUS). The world no.1 will next play against no.3 seed Gael Monfils (Friday, 16:00 CET).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":131893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101012179,101012197,101012429,101011403],"class_list":["post-131897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-atp-500-en","tag-dubai-en","tag-dubai-duty-free-tennis-championships-en","tag-quarterfinal-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131897"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131925,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131897\/revisions\/131925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}