Novak Djokovic defeated Andy Murray to set up a mouthwatering US Open semi-final clash against Kei Nishikori, who became Japan’s first semi-finalist in almost a century.
World number one Djokovic, the 2011 champion, reached his eighth consecutive US Open semi-final by downing Murray 7-6 (7/1), 6-7 (1/7), 6-2, 6-4, needing over two hours to get through the first two sets.
By the end, however, Murray was struggling with what appeared to be a recurrence of his long-standing back problem.
“We both gave our best and at times the tennis was not nice, but that was due to the intense physical battle in the first two sets,” said Djokovic.
“I didn’t expect anything less from Murray. Our last few matches have been three and four hours and he has a lot of quality on all sorts of surfaces.”
Murray, still without a title since his historic 2013 Wimbledon triumph, struggled as the match wore on.
“I tried my best to hang in there in the fourth set but he was fresher than me or at least he appeared to be,” said Murray.
