Murray welcomes confidence boost ahead of Davis Cup final

Earlier, Murray beat 10th-seeded Richard Gasquet of France 7-6 (7), 3-6, 6-3 to reach his first semifinal at the indoor tournament.

The second seed, who had dropped just four games in reaching the last eight, was kept hard at it for two hours 38 minutes before edging through 7-6 (9/7), 3-6, 6-3.

Roger Federer fell at the 3,288,530 euros ATP Paris Masters, beaten 7-6 (3), 3-6, 7-6 (5) by big-serving American John Isner, while retired Japanese Kei Nishikori came out the sole other higher seeded player failing to make quarterfinals on Thursday. That included a second set point at 7-6 where Djokovic won two straight from Berdych’s serve to get his first crack at match point.

Wawrinka overcame an early break of serve and saved two set points in each tiebreaker to beat seventh-seeded Rafael Nadal of Spain 7-6 (8), 7-6 (7) for only the third time in their 16 career meetings – although all of those wins have come in the past four matches.

Novak Djokovic won his sixth Masters title of the year on Sunday (Nov 8) when he defeated Andy Murray 6-2, 6-4 in Paris to put the finishing touches on one of the greatest years in tennis history. He will next face ninth seed 2008 titlist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or fifth seed and 2005 victor Tomas Berdych.

“Obviously clay is seen as being my worst surface, but I still feel like I play well on that court”, he said. “Of course Andy played unbelievable today, and I hope he won’t play like this in Belgium, but it will be a completely different match”. The Swiss agreed Isner served superbly on the big points.

However, he was unable to clinch another Parisian success on Saturday night as Djokovic claimed a 6-3 3-6 6-0 win to advance to his 14th successive final and to the verge of his 10th title of the season.

However, that scenario appears less likely now and, asked if his back was a concern, Murray told Sky Sports: “I don’t think so. I’m just glad I managed to stay calm in the important moments and pull it through”, said Djokovic. Instead of going for my first serves I started slowing them down and dictating points that way.

David Ferrer is also into the quarterfinals after coming from behind to defeat Grigor Dimitrov 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-4. The second set looked as though it was mirroring the first as again the Serbian broke Wawrinka to lead 3-1 with Wawrinka looking tired to say the least.