ROME: Novak Djokovic extended his recent mastery over Rafael Nadal with a pulsating 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) win in the Italian Open quarter-finals on Friday, coming from behind in both sets of a match he agreed was “a classic.”

Nadal wasted five set points in the second set of an encounter that went nearly 2½ hours.

“It felt definitely special to be on the court today playing against Rafa for several hours,” Djokovic said. “Thankfully, we didn’t play [like in] Grand Slams, best of five. Who knows when this match would finish?”

Djokovic has beaten Nadal in the last seven of their 49 encounters, the most in the Open Era. Overall, Djokovic leads the series 26-23.

This was their last opportunity to play each other before the French Open, which starts in nine days.

“Winning against Nadal on clay doesn’t happen often, doesn’t happen every day, so it is one of the ultimate challenges if not the ultimate challenge we have in sports,” Djokovic said. “So I’m going to take this as a boost of confidence, no doubt, for the rest of this tournament, and then of course for French Open.”

While Djokovic has won 15 straight sets against Nadal, this marked their closest match since Nadal won the 2014 French Open final.

“I was not disappointed,” Nadal said. “Overall, I am playing well. ... I have been competing at the highest level against the best player.”

Djokovic will meet Kei Nishikori after the Japanese sixth seed swept Austrian Dominic Thiem 6-3, 7-5.

In the other half of the draw, Andy Murray held off a strong fightback from Belgium’s David Goffin to win 6-1, 7-5 and remain on course for a second successive Masters final with Djokovic.

Murray, who lost to Djokovic in the final at Madrid last week, will face French qualifier Lucas Pouille, who advanced when Argentine opponent Juan Monaco withdrew. Organisers said Monaco had a problem with his left side.

In the women’s event, top-ranked Serena Williams was in dominant mood as she crushed Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-0 to advance to the last four.

Serena needed just 51 minutes to secure victory over Kuznetsova and next faces Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu who eased past Japan’s Misaki Doi 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).

The other semi-final will be between last year’s Wimbledon runner-up Garbine Muguruza of Spain, a 7-5, 6-2 winner over Swiss Timea Bacsinszky, and American Madison Keys who beat Czech Barbora Strycova 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2016