Novak Djokovic’s bid to assert a landmark a centesimal ATP title remained on observe as he overcame proficient teenager Jakub Mensik within the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters.
The Serbian fourth seed misplaced the primary set on a tie-break to the Czech 19-year-old however battled again for a 6-7 (4-7) 6-1 6-4 victory.
Djokovic, 37, will face American world quantity seven Taylor Fritz in Saturday’s second semi-final.
Fritz, 26, comfortably beat Belgium’s David Goffin 6-3 6-4 on Friday to ebook his place within the final 4. It prolonged a run that has seen Fritz progress previous the third spherical for the primary time in Shanghai.
Mensik held his nerve within the opening set towards Djokovic, the 24-time Grand Slam champion.
Djokovic, a four-time winner of the event, was capable of regroup after a scrappy efficiency within the tie-break and breezed by means of the second set, earlier than placing the match to mattress after two hours and 21 minutes.
Though US Open runner-up Fritz would possibly show a troublesome check for Djokovic, the adorned veteran holds a 9-0 profession file from their previous conferences.
Fritz broke within the second and sixth video games to take the opening set towards 66th-ranked Goffin.
Goffin appeared stronger because the match continued, however he couldn’t fairly discover the identical kind that introduced him victory towards second seed Alexander Zverev within the earlier spherical.
“I am actually pleased with how I performed,” stated Fritz.
“[Goffin’s] such an unimaginable returner, I needed to keep extraordinarily targeted, much more targeted than regular on my service video games.”
Saturday’s first singles semi-final options Italy’s world primary Jannik Sinner and Czech participant Tomas Machac, who beat Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday.