Djokovic into 13th consecutive Grand Slam semi-final

LONDON: World number one Novak Djokovic reached his 13th consecutive Grand Slam semi-final on Wednesday with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 6-3 win over Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

Djokovic, the 2011 champion, will face Juan Martin del Potro -- the Argentine eighth seed, who put out Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer, 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) -- for a place in Sunday's final.

Djokovic will go into the semis not having dropped a set in the tournament while holding an 8-3 winning stranglehold against Del Potro.

Wednesday's win was the 26-year-old Djokovic's 14th in 16 career meetings with Berdych as he romped to victory despite having slipped a double-break down at 0-3 in the second set.

Top seed Djokovic, in his 17th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final, played the more composed tie-break to take the opening set, much to the delight of compatriot and Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic, who was watching from his box.

That indicated that the world number one was comfortably on his way with Berdych living off scraps. In the entire first set, Djokovic gave up just two unforced errors.

Berdych, who beat Djokovic in the semi-finals in 2010 when he finished runner-up to Rafael Nadal, quickly regathered his composure, carving out back-to-back breaks for 3-0.

But his audacity came at a cost as Djokovic retrieved the breaks in a flash for 3-3 and then held for 4-3 before taking a two-sets to love lead when the 27-year-old Czech dumped a weary forehand into the net.

A break in the fourth game of the third set gave Djokovic a 3-1 lead which became 4-1 with a solid hold.

At that stage, the Serb had won 10 of 12 games and Berdych could find no response in the dying stages. (AFP)