ASTANA: Novak Djokovic dominated Russian Karen Khachanov 6-4, 6-3, as he took 88 minutes on Friday to reach the Astana ATP tournament semifinals.
"I didn't play as well from the baseline as I did in the first two matches, but still it was enough," said Djokovic after the match. "I managed to produce some good tennis when it was the most needed in both sets."
Facing the US Open semifinalist, the Serb dropped serve for the first time this week but still has not lost a set since returning to the ATP Tour after a three-month break following his Wimbledon title.
He made his comeback at the Laver Cup in London before winning the ATP event in Tel Aviv last week.
"I always expect highs from myself," said Djokovic.
"Hopefully I can elevate still the level of my game for tomorrow because it's going to be needed, obviously, whoever I play against."
In the semifinals, Djokovic will face world No. 4 Daniil Medvedev who beat No. 21 Roberto Bautista of Spain 6-1, 6-1 in the fourth quarterfinal.
Moreover, world No.6 Stefanos Tsitsipas registered a 6-3, 6-2 win over Hubert Hurkacz to reach the last four stage.
The Greek rallied to win a gripping first set, then broke late in the second for the victory. With this, Tsitsipas powered into his ninth semifinal this season and improved his ATP head-to-head lead against Hurkacz to 7-2. This, however, marked the first straight-set result in their past seven duels.
Tsitsipas has yet to be broken in three matches at the ATP 500 in Kazakhstan, although it looked like he would concede his first set of the week when his fellow Top 10 star in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings held five set points in the first-set tie-break.
On the third one of those, the Greek player looked in particular trouble. With Hurkacz serving, Tsitsipas threw up a defensive lob after the Pole's forehand approach. But Hurkacz, so assured on smashes previously in the set, erred wide.
Two more set points came and went for the seventh seed before Tsitsipas capitalised on his lone opportunity when Hurkacz's backhand passing shot strayed wide.
Third seed Tsitsipas carries a 5-4 ATP head-to-head record into his semi-final clash with Andrey Rublev, who began the quarter-final day by topping Adrian Mannarino 6-1, 6-2. Agencies
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