Djoker, Serena advance to semifinals at Cincinnati Masters

Associated Press

MASON

Novak Djokovic played his best match. Serena Williams? Well, she needed to pull a Serena to move on.

Taking different approaches, the top seeds at Cincinnati reached the semifinals Friday, moving a step closer to a title that’s been tough for either of them to win.

Djokovic beat fifth-seeded Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-1, knocking off the player who beat him for the French Open title. Williams followed on center court, struggled with her serve, and had to rally to beat Ana Ivanovic 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

“It’s like when you’re down and maybe down a break in a set and a set, and you pull a Serena is when you come back and win,” Williams said.

Third-seeded Andy Murray reached the semifinals by beating Richard Gasquet 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, his second straight three-set match. He’ll face Roger Federer, who eased through a 6-3, 6-4 win over Feliciano Lopez in only 61 minutes and is trying for his unprecedented seventh Cincinnati title.

Djokovic has never won at Cincinnati, the only one of the nine ATP Masters events that has eluded him. He’s trying to become the first to win all nine.

Williams won the tournament for the first time on her sixth try last year, beating Ivanovic in the final. She lost in the semifinals at Toronto last week and is using her week in Cincinnati as a final tuneup for the U.S. Open, where she’ll try to complete a rare Grand Slam sweep.

This one was ragged.

Williams got only 46 percent of her first serves in play and had 36 unforced errors. After dropping the first set, she fell behind 3-4 in the second set. At that point, she turned it around, breaking Ivanovic’s serve five times while pulling away.

“Usually there isn’t a point where I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this,’ but today there definitely was,” Williams said.

She dominated the last six games, advancing to a semifinal against 14th-seeded Elina Svitolina.

“Against top players, it’s not over until you shake the hand,” Ivanovic said. “You have to fight for each point. Especially Serena — every time she was down and her back against the wall, she came up with the best shots.”

By contrast, Djokovic needed only 63 minutes to reach the semifinals, looking fresh throughout the match. He had only eight unforced errors to 27 for Wawrinka, who was coming off a long, three-tiebreaker win Friday.

“It was the best performance I had so far this week,” said Djokovic, who is 18-4 career against Wawrinka. “Came at the right time, against one of my biggest rivals.”