CINCINNATI: Rafael Nadal of Spain returns to compatriot Feliciano Lopez during their match at the Western & Southern Open.—AP

CINCINNATI: Novak Djokovic smacked his racket on the court after losing serve, seemingly headed for another unexplainable loss at a tournament that has eluded him. In the end, he stopped fuming and started playing like the best.

The top-ranked Serb rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the final set to a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 victory over David Goffin on Thursday, reaching the quarter-finals of the Western & Southern Open.

Third seed Andy Murray also needed a late surge. He recovered from a 5-2 deficit in the third set, survived a match point, and pulled out a 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5 victory over Grigor Dimitrov in a match that lasted 2 hours, 58 minutes.

Serena Williams moved on to the quarter-finals as well, losing only two games in her lopsided match. She’s the tournament’s defending champion.

Djokovic has never won Cincinnati. He’s trying to become the first player to win all nine ATP Masters events in a career.

With things falling apart in the second set, Djokovic slammed his racket three times, drawing a warning. And it kept getting worse against Goffin, a 24-year-old Belgian who is 1-20 against top-10 players.

Finally, Djokovic pulled himself together and pulled it out.

Djokovic will face fifth-seeded Stan Wawrinka, who beat him for the French Open title. Wawrinka pulled out a 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) win after Ivo Karlovic double-faulted on match point.

Murray beat Djokovic to win the title in Montreal on Sunday. He’ll play Richard Gasquet in the quarter-finals as he tries to become the seventh man to win Montreal and Cincinnati back-to-back.

Eighth-seeded Rafael Nadal lost to fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (3). Nadal, coming off a rain-delayed match that ended at 12:43am, fell behind 3-1 in the third-set tiebreaker and never recovered.

Lopez will play Roger Federer, the six-time tournament champion who beat Kevin Anderson 6-1, 6-1 in only 55 minutes to reach the quarter-finals.

On the women’s side, Serena needed only 54 minutes to beat Karin Knapp 6-0, 6-2. She lost just 12 points while winning the first nine games.

Serena, the defending Cincinnati champion, is using the tournament as a final tune-up for the US Open, where she’ll try to complete a calendar Grand Slam sweep. Her quarter-final opponent is Ana Ivanovic, who beat Sloane Stephens 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Serena beat Ivanovic in straight sets to win her first Cincinnati title last year.

A right forearm injury forced Swiss teen Belinda Bencic to withdraw after she dropped the first set against seventh-seeded Lucie Safarova. The 12th-seeded Bencic said she didn’t think the injury was very serious, but it was too soon to know if she could play in next week’s tournament at New Haven, Connecticut. The 18-year-old said her forearm has been sore for some time.

Bencic was coming off the biggest moment of her brief career. She upset Williams in the semi-finals at Toronto last week and went on to win the tournament.

Victoria Azarenka became the fourth woman to withdraw from the tournament when she had to quit her evening match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova because of an injured upper left leg. It bothered her as she won the first set 6-1, and she quit three games into the second set.—AP

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2015

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