Two time champion Novak Djokovic thumped Spain's David Ferrer 6-4 6-2 to march into the last four of the Shanghai Masters on Friday and stretch his winning streak in China to 29 matches.
The Serbian world number one, who won the China Open title for a fifth time last week, hit 26 winners against the Spaniard's 11 and set up a semi-final meeting with Swiss Roger Federer or Julien Benneteau of France.
Djokovic took control early in the match by breaking Ferrer's serve in the second game and then saved two break points at 5-4 to serve out the first set. World number five Ferrer did not have another opportunity to break the top seed's serve and was broken twice in the second set as he lost his seventh consecutive meeting against Djokovic.
Unseeded Frenchman Gilles Simon also moved into the semi-finals after ousting sixth seed Tomas Berdych in three sets, leaving the Czech sweating about a place at the ATP World Tour finals.
Simon, ranked 29th in the world, earned a 7-6(4) 4-6 6-0 win after a two-and-a-half hour slugfest to set up a last four meeting with Spain's Feliciano Lopez. The tall left handed Spaniard, who knocked out compatriot Rafa Nadal in the second round, fought back from a set and a break of serve down to beat Russian Mikhail Youzhny 5-7 6-4 6-4.
Lopez, who also made the semi-finals of the Toronto Masters in August, lost his serve on a double fault leading 5-3 in the third but regained his composure to break straight back.
Simon has made the final of a Masters series event just once, in 2008, but will be confident he can repeat that feat after taking down Berdych, who was in good form after reaching the final in Beijing last week. The win was Simon's second big upset of the tournament following his second round victory over Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka.
Berdych is currently seventh in the ATP Race To London standings, with five singles spots left up for grabs at next month's season-ending event.
The Czech will compete in next week's Stockholm Open to try to book a spot in the eight-man field for London.
THE RACE TO LONDON: 1 Novak Djokovic 8650-qualified 2 Roger Federer 7020-qualified 3 Rafa Nadal 6735-qualified 4 Stan Wawrinka 4795 5 Kei Nishikori 4255 6 Marin Cilic 3980 7 Tomas Berdych 3765 8 Milos Raonic 3740 - - - - - - - - - - - - 9 Andy Murray 3565 10 David Ferrer 3535 11 Grigor Dimitrov 3405 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 2650 13 Ernests Gulbis 2445
* Points as of Oct. 6.
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