Nole Dominates; Zhang's Run Ends

After struggling in his opening round match, defending champion Novak Djokovic put in a dominant performance to reach the semis of the China Open. Results, orders of play, draws, and other information for the China Open in Beijing

By Erik Gudris

Novak Djokovic reaches the semifinals in Beijing

(October 5, 2012) -- Though he struggled in his opening round match at the China Open in Beijing, defending champion Novak Djokovic served notice today he is still the man to beat after he notched a dominating performance in the quarterfinals.

Taking on Jurgen Melzer, Djokovic jumped out to an early break in the first set and never let go of the match. Melzer couldn't convert on his four break point chances against the Serb who served at 70% for the match as Djokovic cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win in just 53 minutes.

(Results: China Open QFs)

Djokovic will next face Germany's Florian Mayer who ended the hopes for a Chinese semifinalist as he took on wildcard Ze Zhang who upended Richard Gasquet earlier in the week.

Mayer saved 10 of the 11 break points against him while the German's unorthodox game proved too much for Zhang as Mayer closed out a 6-3, 6-4 win. This is Mayer's second semi berth of 2012 since winning Bucharest earlier in the year.

Tsonga Efficient Over Youzhny, Gets Lopez Next

No. 3 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who, despite not being happy with his performance against Mikhail Youzhny, was convincing enough as the Frenchman earned an easy 6-3, 6-2 win.

"I'm a bit disappointed with my game on the baseline; I didn't play really good tennis," Tsonga told ATP.com "Today it was not brilliant, but was solid enough to win it today. I served well and that's it."

Tsonga is back into the semis of Beijing for a second straight year and also keeps his hopes alive for securing the final spot at the ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Next up for Tsonga is Spain's Feliciano Lopez who, despite dropping the first set to American Sam Querrey, rallied to take the next two sets to complete a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win.

(File Photo: Novak Djokovic playing in Basel in 2011; Credit: Getty Images)