Novak Djokovic recovered from a first-set loss to overcome Germany’s Mischa Zverev while Britain’s Andy Murray swept past Belgium’s David Goffin to reach the Shanghai Masters semi-finals yesterday.
Djokovic committed 37 unforced errors before labouring to a 3-6 7-6 6-3 win which set up a clash with Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, who humbled Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3 6-4.
Second seed Murray, who has now won 16 sets in a row in ATP events, was ruthless in his 6-2 6-2 victory to clinch his fifth win in five matches against 11th seed Goffin.
Zverev, ranked 110th in the world, broke the Serbian in the third and ninth games to take the opening set in 40 minutes.
The 29-year-old Zverev looked on course for the biggest win of his career after taking a 2-0 lead in the second before Djokovic pounced on the German’s errors to level the match.
Djokovic took a 3-0 lead in the decider, winning 92 per cent of his first-serve points to seal victory in two hours and 20 minutes.
“You’re trying to reach that balance between being concentrated but at the same time being kind of calm and relaxed and enjoying the moment,” said Djokovic, who hummed a tune while waiting to return Zverev’s serve in the latter stages.
“I was always trying to keep that optimal state of mind,” he added.
Life lessons
Djokovic also said he hopes Nick Kyrgios can learn some “life lessons” after the Australian was fined by the ATP Tour for breaching its code of conduct during a contentious defeat in Shanghai.
Djokovic described Kyrgios as one of the greatest talents that the game has seen lately, and said he hoped the Australian would stop squandering his gifts.
“He’s got huge potential, huge game,” Djokovic said.
“I mean he’s been doing well, he’s around 15 in the world so you’ve got to give him credit for that, but on the other hand he obviously has life lessons to learn and he’s still relatively young and hopefully that is going to happen.”
Meanwhile, Murray fired down eight aces and will face Gilles Simon in next round.
Simon, who upstaged world number three Stan Wawrinka in the previous round, continued his fine run with a 4-6 6-4 7-6 win over American Jack Sock.