TOKYO (AP) — Kei Nishikori thought he was playing well. Then he played Novak Djokovic.
The top-ranked Serb never gave Nishikori a chance in a 6-2, 6-0 rout of the home favorite from Japan to reach the semifinals of the tennis tournament at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday.
"He was defending amazing today—everything deep—and I was trying to stay with him but I couldn't," Nishikori said. "I thought I was playing OK but my serving was bad today and he was attacking every (time)."
The dominant performance advanced Djokovic into the medal rounds and—more importantly—moved him one step closer to finishing off this segment of his Golden Slam bid.
In the women's tournament, 12th-ranked Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and 2019 French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic will meet in the gold-medal match.