Djokovic
Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns the ball to Leonardo Mayer of Argentina during their Qatar Open men's singles tennis match in Doha, Qatar January 7, 2016. Reuters/Ibraheem Al Omari

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic continues to his surge in the 2016 Qatar Exxonmobil Open after defeating Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer, 6-3 7-5 to reach the semifinal round of the tournament, setting up a clash with Tomas Berdych.

Top seed Djokovic needed to work harder to dispatch Mayer after the Argentine broke the Serb’s serve in the first game of the second set and served for it at 5-4. However, “Djoker” was able to turn around the match and avoid a third set after sweeping the last four games.

“[Mayer] started better in both the first and second sets,” Djokovic said, reports the ATP’s official website. “The second set was close. It could have gone either way, but I stayed tough and fought through it.”

The victory puts Djokovic in a familiar situation as the 10-time Grand Slam winner faces off with Berdych for the third straight tournament. Djokovic, who leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 21-2, won their two matches at the BNP Paribas Masters and ATP World Tour Finals in November.

Djokovic is coming off a remarkable 2015 season after winning three of four Grand Slam events he participated. The 28-year-old said he thinks it would be possible for him to complete a Grand Slam calendar this year after missing such opportunity in his loss against Stan Wawrinka at the French Open.

"It's still very early for me to talk about the Grand Slam in a year,” Djokovic said, reports Yahoo Sports. “You know, that would be something very extraordinary, but it is possible.”

Match time for the 2016 Qatar Open semifinal round between Djokovic and Berdych will be at 4:30 p.m, Saturday AEDT.

Live streaming info and live score updates

Catch all the action of the 2016 Qatar Open Exxonmobil live via TennisTV. Live score updates will be available on ATP’s official website.

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