World No. 1 Novak Djokovic continued his march to a fifth China Open title by dismantling a flat Grigor Dimitrov in a one-sided quarter-final on Friday after women’s top seed Serena Williams was forced to pull out through injury.
Briton Andy Murray faces Djokovic in the last four after also storming through with a 6-1, 6-4 win over US Open champion Marin Cilic, while Maria Sharapova destroyed Svetlana Kuznetsova in an all-Russian women’s quarter-final.
World No. 1 Williams, who had reached the last eight on the Beijing hard courts after a 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 win over Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic late on Thursday, cited a problem in her left knee for handing a walkover to Australia’s Sam Stosur.
Photo: AFP
It was the second tournament in a row the 33-year-old, who won her 18th Grand Slam singles title at the US Open last month, had been forced to withdraw, after she quit her opening match at the Wuhan Open last week because of illness.
Bulgarian Dimitrov also looked off color in his display against the Beijing expert Djokovic, who extended his record on the blue hard courts to 22-0 with a 6-2, 6-4 win.
The Serb targeted the faltering backhand of the fifth seed in the opening set, which he took with breaks in the fourth and eighth games in an improved display after showing rust in his opening matches.
The second set seemed to be going the same way as Djokovic pushed Dimitrov back with some deep ground strokes, while producing his trademark extensive court coverage to negate the threat of his opponent as he broke to lead 3-1.
Dimitrov finally showed some fight, breaking back with a thumping forehand cross-court winner, only to lose serve again in the next game to trail 4-2.
Djokovic looked set to serve out the match at 5-3 and 30-0 up, but Dimitrov rallied again, breaking the Serb with the point of the match after a stunning backhand winner down the line at full stretch.
However, rather than capitalize on the heroics, the world No. 10 crumbled, giving up the match on a third double fault to leave his bid to qualify for the ATP Tour World Finals in London next month in trouble.
“It was pretty slow conditions because of the weather. It’s a bit cold today, which I think suited more to my style of the game,” Djokovic told reporters. “I was trying to mix up the pace, give him high balls to the backhand, serve efficiently. Everything worked well. The second set was up and down, but generally it was a good performance.”
In the last four Djokovic faces Murray, who like Dimitrov is chasing a place in the season-ending event for the top eight.
Murray, eyeing back-to-back titles after Sunday’s Shenzen Open triumph, put up a dominant display against Cilic, whose serve crumbled under pressure in the opening set.
The second set went neck-and-neck, before Murray went 5-4 up and set up three match points, capitalizing on the second when Cilic slipped while trying to return a backhand.
In yesterday’s late quarter-final, qualifier Martin Klizan of Slovakia was leading second seed Rafael Nadal of Spain 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 2-1 as at press time.
In the women’s tournament, Stosur is to face Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the semis after the Czech beat Italy’s Roberta Vinci 7-6 (9/7) 6-4.
World No. Kvitova, who won last week’s event in Wuhan, mixed seven aces with six double faults as she battled through.
French Open champion Sharapova was far more dominant, beating Kuznetsova 6-0, 6-4 in 1 hour, 24 minutes to set up a semi-final clash with former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic.
Sharapova was broken only once and dropped just four games in the lop-sided contest to sail into only her second WTA Tour semi-final since her victory at Roland Garros.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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