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Djokovic, Serena remain in cruise control

By Tobi Awodipe
28 January 2015   |   6:18 pm
The final four of both the women and men that would move to the semifinals was decided Wednesday, a day that saw many surprise results.   World No1, Novak Djokovic, was all business as he sent the Canadian, Milos Raonic, packing in straight sets.   Most people expected a thrilling match, but apart from the…

The final four of both the women and men that would move to the semifinals was decided Wednesday, a day that saw many surprise results.

  World No1, Novak Djokovic, was all business as he sent the Canadian, Milos Raonic, packing in straight sets.   Most people expected a thrilling match, but apart from the first set that was decided with a tiebreak in Djokovic’s favour, the rest was pretty routine for the number one seed. 

  Raonic initially proved a tough nut to crack as the six breakpoints opportunities Djokovic strung together were saved each time by the Canadian. 

  Djokovic was ahead initially in the tiebreak but several unforced errors from his racquet, saw him relinquishing the mini-breaks. But if Djokovic had several unforced errors, Raonic’s own proved to be worse as he sent two forehand returns wide to hand the set over to Djokovic.

   Djokovic promptly broke Raonic’s serve at the beginning of the second set and it was downhill for the Canadian from that point. Djokovic never faced a single break point on his serve and committed a paltry 17 unforced errors compared to Raonic’s 36. 

The third set will see the Canadian make a lot of errors gifting the Serb with two breaks of serve. Djokovic took them and never looked back taking the match 7-6 6-4 6-2 in under two hours.

   Djokovic will face Stanislaus Wawrinka, the defending champion in the semi finals after the latter dispatched Kei Nishikori of Japan with Swiss accuracy in straight sets. Nishikori had no answer to Wawrinka’s backhand and superb shot makings. 

  Many fans await this clash as the duo have met consecutively here with Wawrinka defeating Djokovic in an epic five-setter last year. 

   Tomas Berdych, who stunned Rafael Nadal, will face Andy Murray in a match that promises to be very exciting. A winner would be difficult to determine, as both are playing matches of their lives.

   While Venus was shown the exit doors, Serena Williams was too much for Dominika Cibulkova in a game that ended in straight sets yesterday. Serena has only lost four times in finals, and those happened years ago. She is a favorite to win the title after defeating last year’s runner up Cibulkova  Wednesday.

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