TENNIS WORLD

Djokovic Reaches Semifinals; Nadal Next

World No. 3 Novak Djokovic reached his sixth ATP Masters Series semifinal of the season with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Latvian teenager Ernests Gulbis on Friday.
The 21-year-old Serb broke his 19-year-old friend once in each set and saved all three break points he faced in the one hour and 33-minute match. He converted two of five break point chances on Gulbis' serve.
Djokovic will take on rival Rafael Nadal in his first Cincinnati semifinal. Coming into this week, Djokovic had a career mark of 1-3 in Cincinnati.
"I thought that I was serving much better, and day after day I'm getting stronger in the segment of my game which is really important coming up to the final stages of the tournament," said Djokovic, who improved to 43-10 on the season, 22-5 on hard courts. On playing Nadal in the semifinals, Djokovic said, "Hard courts are bit more difficult for him because of the movement. You can't slide that much and the ball bounces in a different way. Here it's pretty fast, which can go in my favor tomorrow. But, again, he's playing great tennis even in this tournament, and obviously he's very motivated.
"He's proven that he's even this year the best player on grass. I mean, even though if you look at his style of the game you don't think that he might do really well on that surface which is the fastest in the sport, he obviously does really well. Winning that Wimbledon and French Open, he won more or less all the title that really matter this year."