World No. 1 Novak Djokovic on Thursday racked up his 30th win of a dominant season with a 6-2, 6-1 destruction of Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the Madrid Masters quarter-finals.
The resurgent Rafael Nadal and defending champion Andy Murray also remained on course for a semi-final clash as they eased past Sam Querrey and Gilles Simon respectively in straight sets.
Djokovic is playing in Madrid for the first time in three years, but has not taken long to adjust to the different conditions in the altitude of the Spanish capital as he has reached the quarters with the loss of just nine games.
Photo: EPA
“After a long game at 2-2 in the first set, I managed to break his serve. It was a flawless performance after that, everything worked very well,” Djokovic said. “Today [Thursday] the way I played gives me a lot of satisfaction. I’m just hoping I can continue playing this well tomorrow [yesterday].”
The Serb was to continue his quest for a fifth title of the season against Milos Raonic as the big serving Canadian dumped out seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 6-4.
Djokovic also had a word for troubled star Bernard Tomic, urging the Australian to take his profession more seriously after he spectacularly gave up in losing to Fabio Fognini in the first round.
Tomic held his racquet the wrong way round and made no attempt to return Fognini’s serve in bowing out on Tuesday.
However, he compounded his behavior with comments claiming he did not need to care about losing given the wealth he had amassed already in his short career.
“I don’t care about that match point,” he told News Corp Australia. “Would you care if you were 23 and worth over $10 million?”
Djokovic has been a regular practice partner for Tomic and believes he is capable of far more than his current ranking of 22nd in the world.
“I’ve seen what he has done. It’s not right and I hope he realizes that,” the 11-time Grand Slam champion said.
“The sooner the better for him because he is still relatively young and he can definitely be a better player and better-ranked than he is now,” he said.
“Everybody knows that. I think he knows that, but he doesn’t seem to really get things the right way off the court,” Djokovic said.
Nadal stretched his perfect start to the European clay-court season to 12 matches as he fought back from going down an early break to beat Querrey 6-4, 6-2.
The 14-time Grand Slam champion is in fine form after victories in Monte Carlo and Barcelona and is seeking to break Guillermo Vilas’ record with a 50th clay-court title in tomorrow’s final.
Nadal started slowly as Querrey stormed into a 3-0 lead and had a break point to lead 5-2.
However, Nadal turned the match around by winning six straight games to seal the first set and break early in the second.
Querrey broke back to level at 2-2, but Nadal pulled away in the final stages to remain on course for a fifth title in Madrid.
“I had the confidence that if I managed to make the rallies longer, more than three balls, I knew that things could turn around,” Nadal said.
Murray extended his impressive record over Simon to 14-2 with a 6-4, 6-2 win over 16th seed.
The two-time Grand Slam champion was to face Tomas Berdych in the last eight after the Czech got the better of David Ferrer 7-6 (10/8), 7-5.
World No. 6 Kei Nishikori continued his fine form on the clay to reach the last eight with a 6-4, 7-5 win over 10th seed Richard Gasquet.
Nishikori faces Nick Kyrgios after the Australian dug deep to battle past Uruguayan clay-court specialist Pablo Cuevas 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-3.
In the women’s draw, the only remaining seed, Simona Halep, was victorious in an all-Romanian quarter-final against Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3, 0-6, 6-1. Halep — a finalist in Madrid in 2014 — faces former US Open champion Sam Stosur after she beat Patricia Maria Tig 6-3, 6-4.
American qualifier Louisa Chirico also continued her fairytale run to reach the semi-finals.
Chirico, ranked 130 in the world, beat Australian Daria Gavrilova 7-6 (7/1), 6-2 to reach her first-ever WTA semi-final, where she faces Dominika Cibulkova, who came from a set down to beat the fourth Romanian in the quarters, Sorana Cirstea, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
The pressure was already on Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso before their 2-1 defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League raised further questions about his future. Arsenal remain perfect in this season’s competition and three points clear at the top of the standings after a 3-0 win against Club Brugge, while defending champions Paris Saint-Germain were held 0-0 at Athletic Bilbao. The clash between Madrid and City was the standout game of the round amid reports this week that Alonso had lost control of the locker room. Speculation over his position is likely to intensify after the latest
The Olympic flame for the Milan Cortina Winter Games landed in Rome on Thursday following a handover in Greece. The flame was carried in a small lantern aboard an ITA Airways flight between the Greek and Italian capitals. Tennis player Jasmine Paolini — an Olympic gold medalist — and local organizing committee president Giovanni Malago carried the flame off the plane. “I feel honored. It’s an incredible emotion,” Paolini said in brief remarks before the lantern was driven away toward the presidential palace. A 63-day torch relay covering 12,000km is to start in Rome today and wind its way through all 110 Italian provinces
The Kashima Antlers won a record-extending ninth Japanese title on the final day of the J. League season yesterday, holding their nerve to beat the Yokohama F. Marinos 2-1. Watched by Brazilian legend and former player Zico, the Antlers went into the game at their packed home stadium with a one-point lead over Kashiwa Reysol in the table. A goal in either half from Brazilian striker Leo Ceara put the Antlers in control, but Yokohama struck in the first of five minutes of second-half injury time to set up a nail-biting finale, with Reysol winning their game 1-0. The Antlers saw out the
Tony Jefferson intercepted a Jalen Hurts pass in overtime to give the Los Angeles Chargers a 22-19 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday in an NFL thriller between playoff contenders. Justin Herbert, playing a week after surgery on his broken left (non-throwing) hand, withstood a career-high seven sacks to throw for 139 yards and a touchdown for the Chargers. Cameron Dicker kicked five field goals, including the 54-yard game winner in overtime. The Chargers defenders forced Hurts to throw four interceptions and surrender a fumble for a career-worst five turnovers as the Eagles fell to 8-5 with a third
RSS