WEEKEND POLL: Djokovic improves to see off Murray threat

Andy Murray of Britain returns the ball to Novak Djokovic of Serbia during their quarter-final match in Paris.

The Serb edged into the lead after claiming a hard fought first set before easing to victory in the second with three breaks of the Murray serve.

Djokovic triumphed 7-5 6-2 in a match time of one hour and 41 minutes to line up a last four meeting with David Ferrer or Kei Nishikori.

The first set progressed on serve, although Murray survived a scare in the eighth game after a successful review when Djokovic had appeared to have claimed the first break of the match, only for the ball to be shown to be out.

The game returned to 40-40 and Murray went on to hold but the Serb went on to claim the first set after eventually breaking his opponent in the 12th game in a time of one hour and four minutes.

Murray broke Djokovic early in the second set to take a 2-1 lead but the world No 1 hit back immediately with a break of his own to level it at 2-2.

Djokovic then held serve and forced another break before taking a 5-2 lead – meaning he had won four successive games – with Murray left hanging into the match.

However, the Serb quickly put the world No 8 out of his misery with his third consecutive break of serve, Murray crashing the ball into the net from a forehand to exit the tournament at the quarter-final stage.

His work was part-done already, though, having qualified for the end-of-season Tour finals in London on Thursday.

Following his victory, Djokovic admitted he always anticipates a tough match against Murray.

“We know what to expect - the matches will be very long, they will be physical with long rallies and long exchanges and whoever is calmer at the important moments comes up with one or two good shots at the right time can prevail and that’s what happened,” said Djokovic afterwards.

“The first set was very close and I had some break opportnities and held my service games pretty good and then I made a crucial break at the end of the first.

“He was a break up in the second but then some double faults allowed me to come back and get back to the second set and after that I just started swinging through it much better.”