Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer have reached the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Masters 1000 tournament. Both win the round of the last eight in three sets.
Djokovic defeated Canada’s Milos Raonic 7-5, 4-6 and 6-3, and in the early afternoon, the Serbian was still successful in continuing his game against defending champion Grigor Dimitrov.
As against the Bulgarian, the Wimbledon champion had a bad start into the match against Raonic. The Canadian took the first break for 4-3, then Djokovic smashed his racquet.
At a score of 5:4, the 27-year-old served for the set win, but with a double mistake he gave away his service game at the worst possible time. In his following service game Raonic handed out gifts again, with another double mistake he handed out the set with 7:5.
However, the 29th in the world rankings was not deterred by this and again took the first break in the second set. But this time he did not let Djokovic come back and served out for 6:4. In the fifth duel between the two on hard court, he secured his first set win.
Raonic was about to double that account at the beginning of the third set. With a superb forehand pass ball, he took his first break for 2-1, and at the Wimbledon finalist’s serve strength of 2016, a supposedly decisive game win.
But Djokovic immediately managed the 2-2 re-break and the probably best return player of all times went into a frenzy, took Raonic’s 5-3 serve and scored his first match point after trailing 0:30 in the last game.
“I’m very happy with my fighting spirit,” Djokovic said after the meeting. Thus, the thirteen-time Grand Slam winner is still on his way to the Career Golden Masters. With the exception of the tournament in Ohio, Djokovic has already won every Masters 1000 tournament. In the semi-final, Marin Cilic is waiting for him. The Croatian won against Pablo Carreno-Busta 7:6 (7) and 6:4.
Roger Federer also made it into the semi-finals of the Western & Southern Open. In the clash against his compatriot Stan Wawrinka, however, the Swiss had to fight long before the 6:7 (2), 7:6 (6) and 6:2 victory was certain.
In the first run, the Maestro made too many mistakes – 23 Unforced Errors were only 13 winners. After Wawrinka had defused two set points at 5:6, the 33-year-old clearly prevailed in the tiebreak thanks to a few hair-raising mistakes made by his opponent.
In the second set, after only one break opportunity for Federer, which defeated Stan the Man sovereign, it went into the short decision again. Federer won two set points with outstanding tennis, but he missed both of them. In the end, however, the 20-fold major winner won 8:6.
After a short storm interruption, the two started their fifth set of the day half an hour before midnight. Federer had previously beaten Leonardo Mayer, Wawrinka was successful against Marton Fucsovics.
The 37-year-old Federer took the first break of the day at a score of 3:2 and did not let himself be dissuaded from the winning streak afterwards. With another break to zero, he won the semi-final ticket. The seven-time Cincinnati Champion will face David Goffin, who beat Juan Martin del Potro 7-6 (5) and 7-6 (4).
Cincinnati: The men’s single tableau