22 January,2013 09:53 PM IST | | AFP
Novak Djokovic bounced back from a marathon five-setter just 48 hours earlier as he skated into the Australian Open semi-finals with a untroubled win over Tomas Berdych on Tuesday.
The Serbian world number one, chasing a hat-trick of Australian crowns, showed no ill-effects of his torrid five-hour dogfight with Stanislas Wawrinka as he beat the Czech fifth seed, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in 2hr 31min.
Djokovic now faces a semi-final on Thursday against Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer, who fought back to beat countryman Nicolas Almagro in five sets earlier Tuesday.
"I felt good enough to go another five hours, but I definitely wasn't thinking about it," Djokovic said.
Novak Djokovic exults after beating Tomasu00a0Berdych on Tuesday. Pic/AFP
"I tried to get the work done as fast and efficient as possible. I was very happy with the way I started the match.
"I was very aggressive out there, going for my shots, which wasn't the case against Wawrinka. So it's a good improvement and very encouraging for next match."
Most interest centred on how Djokovic would recover after his epic fourth-round match with Wawrinka, but he dispelled fears by easily claiming the opening set for the loss of one game in 29 minutes.
Berdych broke the Serb in the opening game and went on to level the match by taking the second set, but it was all Djokovic in the closing two sets.
Djokovic finished with six breaks of the strong Berdych service and hit 47 winners with just 25 unforced errors, while the Czech conceded 43 errors.
Djokovic revealed that he didn't get to sleep until 5:00 am after his last marathon night match and he had accelerated his recovery by taking ice baths.
"It takes a lot of time after a match like that, it's so physically exhausting and demanding along with mentally and emotionally, so you try to do everything that night to recover," he said.
"But after a five-hour match two days ago against Stan, I was quite convinced I could recover for this one. My team did a great job."
It was Djokovic's 12th win over Berdych in 13 meetings with the Czech's only win coming on grass in the semi-finals of 2010 Wimbledon.
The victory clinched Djokovic's 11th consecutive Grand Slam semi-final and he is 9-5 in matches against Ferrer.
Berdych said although Djokovic had played well he had seen him play better in their previous encounters.
"The only thing I can say is that I've played him in many matches and and I've seen him play way better," the Czech said.
"It was kind of a chance for me, but I didn't come up with my best game and that's what was deciding today."
