The Dubai Open semifinals will feature three grand slam winners who won through the quarterfinals in a high quality field that included 8 players in the Top 10. World No.1 Djokovic beat Fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-1, 7-6(8-6) to set up a rematch of Australian Open semifinal against Andy Murray who needed seven match points to beat Thomas Berdych 6-3, 7-5.

Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of Dubai Open

Top seed Djokovic went off to a quick start breaking seventh seed Tipsarevic in the fourth game and extended that lead to win the set easily at 6-1. The second set saw World No.9 Janko Tipsarevic play better and led 3-0 in the second set tie-break and also had a set point at 6-5 but double faulted and Djokovic completed the win in straight sets. Tipsarevic had beaten Djokovic in their previous match at the ATP world finals.

Murray beat Berdych for the first time in almost seven years as he completed the win in an hour and 51 minutes. Murray won 75% of points on second serve to win the first set 6-3 and went up a break twice in the second set but both times Berdych fought back to level terms. Murray broke for 6-5 and was up 40-0 before the drama unfolded. The Czech player started playing more freely and fought back to deuce. There was an element of controversy as the Umpire Mohamed Lahyani ruled a point in favor of Murray after a successful challenge on serve facing break point. Berdych argued with the ruling but it was in vain and he lost focus and the match when he hit a backhand long.

Federer beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-4 to maintain his perfect record against the Russian at 12-0. He will next face 8th seed Juan Martin Del Potro who beat Jo Wilfried Tsonga 7-6(1), 6-2.

Federer got an early break in both sets to cruise to victory against Youzhny who won the Zagreb Indoors title in February. Federer who has won the Dubai title four times did not face much trouble on serve and won the match easily to advance to a semi final showdown against Del Potro,

Del Potro continued his comeback and steady rise up the rankings with a second win over Tsonga who is ranked No.5 in the world within a week and now leads the Frenchman 5-1 in career meetings. After winning a close first set on a tie break, Del Potro stormed off to a 4-0 lead in the second set as a disheartened Tsonga made more errors and lost the second set at 6-2.

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