Novak Djokovic rolled into the semifinals of the World Tour Finals with a 6-2, 7-6 (8-6) victory on Friday over Tomas Berdych, leading home favourite Andy Murray to his own place in the final four.
Murray secured his spot as he beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).
Roger Federer has already glided into the final four from Group B, with the second contender to be decided on Saturday when Federer plays his last match against Juan del Potro, and David Ferrer takes on Janko Tipsarevic.
Djokovic continued his career domination of Berdych, beating the Czech for the 11th time in 12 meetings, as he took a 73rd win of the season. Berdych was unable to convert on three set points in the tiebreaker, which would have taken the contest into a decisive final set.
“I played a lot of matches this year, but for the first time I won all three in my group,” Djokovic said. “This is very encouraging for me, so I will try to focus on the semifinal now.” Djokovic ran away with the opening set against Berdych, who ended group play 1-2. The Serb was unable to continue in that form in the second set as Czech resistance stiffened.
Berdych kept it on serve and took a 3-0 lead in the tiebreaker before Djokovic seized the momentum again to close out the victory in 97 minutes, with seven aces among 30 winners and three breaks of serve.
“I just try to have a simple thinking, fight every point that I have, guess it works sometimes. Sometimes it doesn’t work. I’m glad it worked today,” said the winner.
