Djokovic, Murray to Meet in Dubai Semis, Federer Makes Semi, Too

Novak Djokovic will take on Andy Murray in the semifinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Friday after both men came through their quarterfinal match-ups today.

World No.1 Djokovic defeated his fellow Serbian, and good friend, Janko Tipsarevic in straight sets 6-1, 7-6 (6).

Djokovic took the first set comfortably after claiming two breaks of serve, but faced a much tighter battle in set two. Tipsarevic, the World No. 9, held serve throughout to take the set into a tiebreak and even had a set point at 6-5 to try and force a decisive third.

But the 27-year-old coughed-up a double fault to allow Djokovic back into the breaker, and that was the all the opening the five-times major winner needed to close out the tie-break 8-6.

Earlier in the day, Murray ended a three-match losing streak over Tomas Berdych to record an impressive straight-sets victory over the Czech world No.7. Murray seemed unfazed by his previous poor record against his opponent, though, as he secured an early break that was enough to grab the first set 6-3.

Murray repeated the trick by breaking in Berdych's first service game of set two, but on this occasion the Czech responded to tie up the set at 2-2. Murray finally regained the advantage to take a 6-5 lead and, despite needing seven match points, was able to close out the match 6-3, 7-5.

Murray said he was always relaxed, despite needing so many chances to close out the victory.

In my whole career on the tour, I don't know how many matches I've played, I think I've only lost one match where I served for it, two max, he said, according to the tournament website. That's one thing I've always been very comfortable with, closing matches out.

I thought tactically I did well for a set-and-a-half. I created a lot of chances in the second set, but kind of gave them back to him. But I just hung in at the end. I fought and scrambled and did what I had to do to win.

The two men who will be meeting for the first time since their dramatic encounter at this year's Australian Open, which say Djokovic victorious in five sets on his way to claiming the title.

The event's other semi-final will be between Roger Federer and either Juan Martin del Potro or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga after Federer Defeated Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-4 in his quarterfinal encounter.