Djokovic overcomes gutsy Tomic to sail into Shanghai semis

The 22-year-old took two hours and 13 minutes to win through to the last eight at a Masters tournament for the second time, serving 19 aces among his winners.

It will be the 29th encounter on the ATP tour between Murray and Djokovic.

At 15-15, Nadal hit three consecutive return winners – on Karlovic’s first serve – to pull even at 5-all. He could take lessons from the way Roger Federer has changed his game to suit his age and physicality, which has paid dividends this year, with the Swiss managing to make it to the final of both Wimbledon and the US Open.

Shanghai Novak Djokovic ended Bernard Tomic’s impressive run at the Shanghai Masters with a hard-fought quarter-final win on Friday over the Australian No.1. The Frenchman also made it to the semifinals in Shanghai two years ago. They top the rankings and the Race to London, Djokovic No2, Murray No2. “We’ve played a few great matches before in Masters series”.

Top-ranked Djokovic was pushed all the way in a thrilling opener but after he edged the tiebreak 8/6, it was smooth sailing as Tomic capitulated.

The French player, who beat Williams’ sister Serena in their last three meets, struggled to gain a foothold in a match dominated by the seven-time Grand Slam victor. He surged to 5/2 and whipped a forehand passing shot victor to bring up four match points.

“It is a court that [Tsonga] likes to play on”, said Nadal.

Murray told Sky Sports 3: “I felt like I dictated all match and, against someone who hits the ball as big as Tomas, that’s not always easy to do”. I was really aggressive.

“I think the first set was a good level of tennis”, Nadal said. “I was injured after the U.S. Open and to come back and beat Caroline this way, you have to play your best tennis”.

He then reflected on Djokovic.

He was playing his eighth match in the past 10 days after winning the title in Tokyo last week and had a tough three-set victory over Marin Cilic on Thursday that finished late at night. He’s not dropped a set in Beijing or here either.

Seventh-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova became the highest ranked player left after defeating Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 6-4, 6-0. Hopefully I can play another good one tomorrow’. “Obviously, it’s giving me more confidence”.

Djokovic did not see himself as a clear favourite but added: “I’ll try to use the confidence and the kind of comfortable optimistic approach that I had to all the matches in these last couple of weeks”.