Novak Djokovic of Serbia shakes hands with Feliciano Lopez of Spain as he withdraws from his quarter final match on day six of the ATP Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship at the Dubai Duty Free Stadium on February 25, 2016 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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Stan Wawrinka and Nick Kyrgios will renew their rivalry when they meet in the Dubai Championship semi-final on Friday.
In fact, the Australian Open champion, who racked up his 700th career win on Wednesday, was booed by some fans as he walked off court having suffered his first loss in 15 matches in 2016.
Two more seeds also reached the last eight, with sixth seeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez beating Czech Lukas Rosol 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) and German eighth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber putting out young Croatian Borna Coric 6-2, 7-6 (7/5).
“Since the incident. I think we’ve both moved on from it”, said Kyrgios.
Djokovic admitted to some frustration as he closed out the win.
Kyrgios was imperious on serve, losing just four points in the second set, and sending down 10 aces after overcoming a back issue earlier in the match that required a medical time-out. And I think he just started to play a little bit more solid, you know, play a little bit more aggressive from his forehand side, which is his stronger side and just made a couple of games, an d pushed me a little bit more.
He said after the match: “It’s very sad when one of the greatest players ever has to retire from a match like that”.
“It’s good to have a chance to play better tomorrow”. Wawrinka lost first-round matches the two times he played Dubai (2007 and 2008), before he fled to comforting clay.
It ends an fantastic run of 17 consecutive finals and seven successive titles for the Serb. “Tomas is a tough player, one of the best in the world”. “I feel great on the court, and I feel I have a lot of rhythm. He faces the popular Cypriot, Marcos Baghdatis”.
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Fourth-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain pummeled Hyeon Chung of South Korea 6-0, 6-1 to reach his fifth quarterfinal of the year.
