Murray, who has not beaten Federer since the Australian Open in 2013, will now turn his attention to the US Open which begins on August 31. He’s trying to become the first to win all nine.
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Djokovic and Dolgopolov has never faced each other in the Cinicinnati Masters.
Williams got only 46 percent of her first serves in play and had 36 unforced errors. He went up a break to lead 5-4 in the first set as Wawrinka tussled with consistency.
Since that odd episode, Williams has steadily rebuilt her game to the point where she can rightly be regarded as among the three or four best of all time, alongside or near Margaret Court, Martina Navritalova and Steffi Graf.
Tennis: Serena Williams pumped her fist after each important point and screamed as she smacked another emphatic shot. Perhaps she is at her peak when feels an inner peace – the sort of tranquility that painfully deserted her in the aborted doubles match at Wimbledon two years ago, when she left the premises tired and disorientated.
Murray broke right back, however, then dominated the tiebreak to close the match out after midnight.
Djokovic has been bothered by a sore elbow that affected his serve. “I just hope it will get better and I’m sure I will be fit very soon – now I still need to talk with the team and decide what to do”.
“I’m just happy I managed to fight through a lot of tough matches, hard situations, and hopefully that will stand me in good stead for the US Open“. Djokovic will face Stan Wawrinka in the next round after the Swiss fifth seed prevailed over Ivo Karlovic to win 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5).
French Open finalist Lucie Safarova advanced to the quarter-finals when injured opponent Belinda Bencic quit trailing 6-2.
“There wasn’t anything really tactical in particular for me today, I always just try to play my game and be consistent and stay focused”, Williams, who improved to 44-2 in 2015, said in a courtside interview. “He obviously didn’t play at his best level, but I felt like I was pretty solid from the back of the court and doing what I needed to do”.
Andy Murray will meet 12th seed Richard Gasquet, a 7-5 6-3 victor over US Open champion Marin Cilic, after defying the odds to remove Grigor Dimitrov.
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He’s the first qualifier to reach the semifinals in Cincinnati since 1994. One would expect that number would be near even given Wawrinka’s firepower and strong groundstrokes, but the fatigue from the his back-to-back three-setters plus what he’s gone through mentally over the last week-plus has taken loads out of him. Kevin’s lone success in second set was in the third game which he won at love.
