No. 2 seed Andy Murray reached the Paris quarters for the sixth time with an easy 6-1, 6-0 victory over No. 16 seed David Goffin and will next play No. 10 seed Richard Gasquet, who scored a walkover when Kei Nishikori retired due to an abdominal injury.
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It was far from being the world number one’s most commanding performance of late, but it meant he has not dropped a set since the US Open final against Roger Federer in early September.
The 28-year-old Scot will finish the year second in the ATP world rankings if he beats Djokovic on Sunday.
Djokovic booked his spot in the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 7-5 win over 14th-seeded Gilles Simon that extended the Serb’s unbeaten streak to 19 matches and 26 sets in a row.
Serves again dominated in the second set with both men holding firm to bring up a second straight tie-break which Djokovic edged 10/8 despite Berdych having another set point.
At 3-2 and 0-30 on the Djokovic serve, there was a glimmer of hope for Murray, but he could not take advantage and soon found himself a game away from another defeat. Ferrer got the break back midway through the first set as a few mistakes started to creep into the Scot’s game. “I managed to shorten a lot of the points”, Murray said.
The seventh seeded Spaniard appeared to be on his way out but a risky forehand victor allowed him to save match point at 5-6 down in the second set tiebreak.
Federer, who went out of the tournament without dropping his own serve, said that Isner had served superbly on the big points. I was moving well, it was just on the serve it gave me a little bit of trouble.
Murray had never previously gone beyond the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters, but his 6-4 6-3 victory over David Ferrer took him into a final showdown with Novak Djokovic.
The 17-times Grand Slam champion looked like he might force a win, saving all six break points and fighting back from 6-2 down in the final set tiebreaker, but his resistance was finally broken when Isner hit a looping serve to Federer’s backhand on his next match point.
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“It was a tough match, the crowd was right behind him but that’s ideal preparation for the Davis Cup to play in an atmosphere like that”. But as he has done all year, the Serb dug deep to level and then break again in the following game as Murray faltered.
