Novak Djokovic needed a piece of luck against close friend Janko Tipsarevic on Thursday before carrying his bid for a record fourth successive Dubai Open title into a semi-final clash with Andy Murray.
The triple grand slam titleholder beat the seventh-seeded Tipsarevic 6-1 7-6 (8-6) but only escaped from set point down at 5-6 in the tiebreaker thanks to a double fault from his Davis Cup team-mate.
It raised hopes that Djokovic and Murray would feature in another classic encounter similar to their five-hour Australian Open semi-final.
Murray reached the Dubai semi-finals with a 6-3 7-5 victory over Tomas Berdych.
In Friday’s other semi-final, four-time Dubai champion Roger Federer, whose 6-3 6-4 win over Mikhail Youzhny was his 12th over the Russian, will play in-form Juan Martin del Potro.
The big Argentine defeated French fourth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 (7-1) 6-2.
For a while, Djokovic seemed likely to win comfortably against Tipsarevic, with whom he had “practised a million times”.
He hit with great power off the ground, moved superbly and won the first set in only 27 minutes.
But he ran into difficulty after failing to convert break points at 30-40 in the fifth and seventh games of the second set.
Tipsarevic struck the ball more boldly, won many of the longer rallies with tenacious base-lining, and had the support of the crowd for his fightback.
Djokovic appeared to grow tense and, when he went 0-3 and 1-4 down in the tiebreak, a deciding set looked likely.
But after Tipsarevic’s crucial double-fault made it 6-6, Djokovic capitalised with a backhand slice to earn a second successive point against serve, and followed it with the winning combination of a good first serve and an unstoppable forehand follow-up.
Asked about playing Murray again, Djokovic said: “We are the same age and the first time we played each other was at the age of 11. So hopefully we will play another great match.”
Murray progressed with a straight-sets win over Berdych, the fierce-hitting fifth-seeded Czech against whom he had lost the previous three times.
The other semi-final is between grand slam record holder Federer and del Potro, the 2009 US Open finalist from Argentina, whose victory against Tsonga was his second in five days.
Against Youzhny, Federer established breaks of serve early in both sets and, each time, consolidated the advantage right through.
It suggested that the extra competition Federer has had this year – having included Rotterdam and the Davis Cup in his schedule – has made him satisfyingly match tight from the start of this week.
But Federer might feel hardly any more secure at avoiding another meeting with Tsonga by getting del Potro instead.
The Argentine’s last victory over a top-five player was against him.
