Novak Djokovic on Friday notched two victories at
the Western & Southern Open as the Wimbledon champion sealed a spot
in the semi-finals of the Masters event.
The Serb was shaky midway through his match against Milos Raonic, but
cleared away the problems in the third set to win 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 and
stay perfect in nine matches against the Canadian. Djokovic, the 10th
seed, has been finalist five times at the tournament in Cincinnati,
Ohio, but never won the title.
Earlier, Djokovic finished off his rain-delayed match against fifth
seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
In the last match of the evening Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland faced
compatriot and second-seeded Roger Federer. Each took a set in a
tie-break before a thunderstorm caused a delay, but when play
resumed, Federer dominated, taking the match 6-7 (7-2), 7-6 (8-6),
6-2.
Wawrinka reached the quarter-final earlier by ousting Marton
Fucsovics of Hungary 6-4, 6-3.
Juan Martin del Potro also played two matches on Friday, losing the
second. After finishing his rain-delayed match with a 7-6 (7-4), 6-7
(8-6), 6-2 victory over Nick Kyrgios of Australia, the Argentine, who
moved up Monday one notch in the world rankings to third, could not
duplicate that success and lost 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4) to 11th-seeded
David Goffin of Belgium.
The only other top seed still in the men's competition,
seventh-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia, defeated Pablo Carreno Busta
of Spain 7-6 (9-7), 6-4. Cilic faces Djokovic in a semi-final on
Saturday, while Federer faces Goffin.
In the women's draw world number one Simona Halep stayed on course to
win her second consecutive trophy in the North American hard-court
series ahead of the US Open. Her 7-5, 6-4 win over Ashleigh Barty of
Australia earned her a spot in the quarter-final round against Lesia
Tsurenko of Ukraine.
In that match the Romanian came back from a 1-4 down in the first set
to dominate Tsurenko in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.
Halep won the Rogers Cup on Sunday over third-seeded American Sloane
Stephens, who lost a quarter-final match in Cincinnati on Friday 7-6
(10-8), 6-2 to 15th-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium.