DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Ticker)—Top seed Novak Djokovic is through to the semifinals of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships after a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Marin Cilic on Thursday.
Fifth seed Cilic, 20, has been in brilliant form this year, winning tournaments in Chennai and Zagreb and losing only one match prior to today.
But the world No. 19 struggled to find the required consistency and was broken once in each set by Djokovic, who saved all six break points he faced.
“I was willing and trying in the last three matches to find this exact rhythm, and that’s what I did today,” Djokovic said. “I think the key today was movement and focus. I was really trying to move well in the point, be patient and just wait for the chances.
“I needed to make kind of a combination of the game, an aggressive game and then a patient game at the same time, which I think I did well.”
The world No. 3, Djokovic is now the clear favorite to pick up his first title of the season after second seed Andy Murray pulled out of the tournament with a virus prior to his quarterfinal against Richard Gasquet.
The British No. 1 has only lost one match all year, picking up titles in Doha and Rotterdam, but he revealed he has been struggling with the illness since returning home from Australia last month.
“I’ll go back home to London and I’m hoping I’ll be okay in the next three or four days,” said Murray, the world No. 4. “I’ll then see what happens with it.”
Djokovic will face third seed Gilles Simon in the last four after he defeated fellow Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1.
It was a farewell appearance in Dubai for 36-year-old Santoro, who is retiring at the end of the season.
The man nicknamed ‘The Magician’ reached the final the first time the tournament was held in 1993 and won the title 10 years later when he rose from his sick bed to defeat Morocco’s Younes El Aynaoui.
Santoro was given a model of an Arabian dhow in a special presentation held on the court after the match.
“I’m just sad because he’s going to stop at the end of the year,” Simon said of his veteran compatriot. “His last tournament (at the Paris Masters), maybe I’m going to watch every match he’s going to play because you never know what one you’re going to lose.
“But I think it’s nice for him to play the last match (in Dubai) on the centre court and to receive a prize at the end.”
In the other semifinal, Gasquet will face fourth seed David Ferrer, who was a 7-5, 6-1 winner against Russian sixth seed Igor Andreev.
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