Andy Murray defeated injured John Isner for the seventh time in seven meetings on Friday to reach the Vienna Open semi-finals and take another step closer to deposing Novak Djokovic as world No 1.
Murray, the 2014 champion in the Austrian capital, cruised to a 6-1, 6-3 win over the American who required treatment on his blistered right hand early in the second set.
World No 2 Murray, who now has 68 wins in 2016 and is on a 14-match win streak, broke serve three times in a dominant opening set, committing just one unforced error to Isner’s 20.
By the end of the one-sided affair, Murray’s error count was just 10 to 35 to the outclassed American.
Murray needs to win the Vienna title on Sunday, as well as next week’s Paris Masters, to have a chance to knock Djokovic off the world top spot.
On Saturday, Murray, 29, faces defending champion and fifth seed David Ferrer who saved a match point and recovered from a break down to beat Serbia’s Viktor Troicki 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.
Ferrer, who is attempting to extend a streak which has seen him reach at least one final in each of the past 11 years, will be up against it facing Murray — he trails 6-14 with the Scot winning the last seven.
Big-serving Ivo Karlovic saved a match point and fired 29 aces to defeat Russia’s Karen Khachanov 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 to reach the semi-finals.
Karlovic, 17 years older than his 20-year-old opponent, saved the match point in the 12th game of the second set.
The Croatian veteran will next face sixth seed and 2011 champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France who defeated Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-2, 7-6 (7/5). Karlovic now has a season-leading 1,081 aces.
Swiss Indoors
Top seed and US Open champion Stan Wawrinka slumped to a shock 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 defeat to German qualifier Mischa Zverev, limping out of the Swiss Indoors event in the quarter-finals.
Zverev, 29, and ranked No 72 in the world, will face Croatian fourth seed Marin Cilic, who beat Spain’s Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-3, for a place in the final.
Wawrinka was broken for 2-5 in the first set, got the tie back level by winning the second before going down a double break in the decider on his way to defeat in just under two hours.
“Zverev almost beat Novak Djokovic two weeks ago in Shanghai,” Wawrinka said.
“He is an offensive player who likes to rely on the speed of the ball from the opponent.”
Two-time champion Juan Martin del Potro hit 14 aces but still went down to a 7-5, 6-4 loss to Kei Nishikori.
Defeat wrapped up the ATP season for the Argentine, who will miss next week’s Paris Masters to return home to train for the Davis Cup final against Croatia.
Nishikori will be aiming to reach his second Basel final — he lost the 2011 title match to Federer — when he takes on Gilles Muller, a 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) winner over Argentine Federico Delbonis.
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