Dubai: Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic defeated Florian Mayer of Germany 7-5, 6-4 on Thursday to reach the Dubai Championships semi-finals, where he will face Tomas Berdych.
Djokovic, the two-time defending champion in Dubai, trailed 5-3 in the first set before winning the final four games when his opponent's serve abandoned him. The third-ranked Serb easily won the second set to reach his fourth consecutive semifinal in Dubai.
Djokovic struggled early with the 38th-ranked Mayer's serve, backhand slice and aggressive net play.
"The ball was going faster today, and he took it to me from the start," Djokovic said. "Already first game he was on the net, twice, three times. I was not moving my legs well. I was making lots of unforced errors."
Next up is Berdych, who Djokovic beat in the Australian Open quarterfinals on his way to winning his second Grand Slam.
"Yeah, tough one. He's playing really well in the last year and a half," Djokovic said. "He's a quite consistent player right now. He has a very powerful serve, very fast baseline strokes, very flat, so I guess I need to be patient and wait for my chances."
Berdych beat Phillip Petzschner of Germany 7-5, 6-4. The third-seeded Czech broke Petzschner three times in the first set but dropped serve twice. Berdych wasted six set points, closing it out when the 73rd-ranked German hit a forehand long.
The second set was just as close, with Berdych's decisive break making it 5-4. Berdych said he had trouble with the big-serving Petzschner.
"That's the way what Philipp likes to play — big serves, sometimes come to the net, a lot of slice in the backhand side and then he just makes a winner like that," he said. "Just not give you a rhythm on court at all."
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