Melbourne: Novak Djokovic reached the semifinals of the Australian Open tennis tournament for a seventh time here Wednesday after eighth seed Kei Nishikori retired hurt when trailing 6-1, 4-1 in their quarterfinal.
Top seed and six-times champion Djokovic will meet Frenchman Lucas Pouille, a maiden Grand Slam semifinalist, Friday for a place in Sunday’s final. Rafa Nadal and Greek wunderkind Stefanos Tsitsipas will meet in the other semifinal Thursday.
Nishikori, who grinded through three five-set matches at the tournament, was clearly struggling after a handful of games in the evening match at Rod Laver Arena and had a medical time-out after losing the first set.
He grimaced as a trainer worked on his right thigh and pulled out of the match after Djokovic won the fifth game. Although appearing untroubled by any injury niggles, Djokovic was grateful for the short match, having complained of a sore back and a couple of issues after battling through a taxing four-set clash against Russian Daniil Medvedev in the previous round.
Pouille edges Raonic
Frenchman Lucas Pouille tamed big-serving Milos Raonic 7-6(7-4), 6-3, 6-7(2-7), 6-4 in the Australian Open quarterfinal to advance to his maiden Grand Slam semifinal here Wednesday.
The Frenchman, 24, took the first set with a brilliant forehand pass against an advancing Raonic in the tiebreak and converted his only breakpoint opportunity in the second set with a measured backhand lob before two winners and two big serves gave Pouille the second stanza.
The 28-year-old Raonic made former top 10 player Pouille pay for wasting four breakpoints by winning the third set tiebreaker but the Frenchman broke the Canadian again in the fourth, converting his third match point to seal the contest in just over three hours.
Pouille will meet the winner of the last quarterfinal between top-seeded Serb Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori of Japan for a place in Sunday’s final.