Novak Djokovic wasted little time in delivering a 6-1 6-2 defeat to France’s Richard Gasquet to move into the semifinals of the Montreal Masters Friday.
Top seed and World No.1 Djokovic is the two-time defending champion at the hard court event and has won it three times in his glittering career.
The Serbian has a near perfect record against Gasquet, losing only once in nine matches and was never troubled in their latest clash.
He was totally dominant from the start and broke his seventh seeded opponent at will for a sixth straight win him.
Djokovic’s next opponent is likely to provide stiffer opposition as the returning Rafael Nadal earned a semifinal clash against him with a later victory over Australian qualifier Marinko Matosevic under the lights at the Rogers Cup. The Spaniard, playing his first tournament since crashing out of Wimbledon in the first round, won 6-2 6-4 in their quarterfinal clash.
Earlier, wild card Vasek Pospisil earned an unlikely semifinal clash against fellow Canadian and 11th seed Milos Raonic.
71st ranked Pospisil went through when Russian Nikolay Davydenko retired because of illness while trailing 3-0 in the first set.
Home favorite Raonic later beat Latvian Ernests Gulbis, who had put out Wimbledon champion Andy Murray in the previous round.
Raonic won 7-6 4-6 6-4 in a tense three-setter
Meanwhile, at the accompanying WTA tournament in Toronto, China’s Li Na reached the semifinals with a 7-6 6-2 victory over Dominika Cibulkova Friday.
The former French Open champion and fourth seed took one hour 36 minutes to ease past Slovakian Cibulkova, who won the Stanford title a fortnight ago.
Li will next play unseeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea, who later stunned defending champion Petra Kvitova 4-6 7-5 6-2. Third seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland also reached the last four with a 7-6 7-5 victory over Italy’s Sara Errani.
She will play top seed Serena Williams, who beat unseeded Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova 6-1 6-1 in exactly an hour in the night match.
Source : CNN
