China Open<\/a> semi-final clash with fifth-seeded Richard Gasquet on Friday in Beijing, after he brushed aside American Sam Querrey 6-1, 6-2 in just 52 minutes.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe world no.1 was in devastating form at the National Tennis Stadium, losing just five points on serve. He landed 89% of his first serve points and converted four of his 12 break point chances, two in each set.<\/p>\n
“To get free points on your serve is necessary and needed,”<\/strong> said Novak. “I played a big server tonight. I managed to read his serve well and managed to always make him play an extra shot. I think that was a perfect performance overall. Good combination between serving efficiently and returning basically every serve back.”<\/strong><\/p>\nMatch statistics<\/span>: aces (7-4), double faults (1-2), total points won (62-31).<\/p>\nNovak will take an 8-1 lead to his last four meeting with Gasquet (Saturday at 19.30 local time \/ 13.30 CET).<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Frenchman upset David Ferrer of Spain in straight sets earlier today.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to the match with the ATP no.10, Novak said:\u00a0“He was always one of the most talented players in our generation. I think in the last two years he’s been playing the tennis of his life. In terms of consistency, he’s up there. I’m expecting a tough match for both of us. There is no question about it. I need to be aggressive. I know what I need to do against him. Hopefully it’s going to work.”<\/strong><\/p>\nRafael Nadal (ESP, 2) will take on Tomas Berdych (CZE, 4) in the second semi-final.<\/p>\n
Djokovic has a perfect 17-0 mark in Beijing and is bidding to win the title for the fourth time, following victories in 2009-10 and 2012.<\/p>\n
Nole’s doubles partner Stanislas Wawrinka withdrew from the event with a right leg injury, so\u00a0Max Mirnyi (BLR) and Horia Tecau (ROU) advanced to the doubles final.<\/p>\n
Photo: AP<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China Open defending champion ousted American Sam Querrey 6-1, 6-2 in just 52 minutes on Friday to reach semis in Beijing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":51727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101012179,101011298,101012456,133,101010550],"class_list":["post-51731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-atp-500-en","tag-beijing-2013-en","tag-china-open-2013-en","tag-defending-champion","tag-quarterfinals-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51731","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=51731"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51734,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51731\/revisions\/51734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Nole](\"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/peking_05.jpg\")
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