MASON, Ohio (AP) Novak Djokovic smacked his racket on the court after losing ser

ve, seemingly headed for another unexplainable loss at a tournament that has elu
ded him. In the end, he stopped fuming and started playing like the best.
The top-ranked Serb rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the final set to a 6-4, 2-6, 6
-3 victory over David Goffin on Thursday, reaching the quarterfinals of the West
ern & Southern Open.
Third-seeded Andy Murray also needed a late surge. He recovered from a 5-2 defic
it in the third set, survived a match point, and pulled out a 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5
victory over Grigor Dimitrov in a match that lasted 2 hours, 58 minutes.
Serena Williams moved on to the quarterfinals as well, losing only two games in
her lopsided match. She's the tournament's defending champion.
Djokovic has never won Cincinnati. He's trying to become the first player to win
all nine ATP Masters events in a career.
''It was a solid first set, but whatever happened in the next 45 minutes - I don
't want to remember it,'' Djokovic said. ''I wasn't on the court. You know, I ju
st lost the intensity and concentration. Luckily for me, I managed to bounce bac
k, dig myself out of this hole I was in.''
With things falling apart in the second set, Djokovic slammed his racket three t
imes, drawing a warning. And it kept getting worse against Goffin, a 24-year-old
Belgian who is 1-20 against top-10 players. Finally, Djokovic pulled himself to
gether and pulled it out.
Djokovic will face fifth-seeded Stan Wawrinka, who beat him for the French Open
title. Wawrinka pulled out a 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) win after Ivo Karlovic do
uble-faulted on match point.
Murray beat Djokovic to win the title in Montreal on Sunday. He'll play Richard
Gasquet in the quarterfinals as he tries to become the seventh man to win Montre
al and Cincinnati back-to-back.
Like Djokovic, he needed a fast finish to keep going.
''You see Novak's match earlier today, he gets a couple of breaks and it's not i
mpossible to get back in there,'' Murray said. ''There were many, many important
points in that match. I'm not quite sure how I managed to get through it.''
Eighth-seeded Rafael Nadal lost to fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 5-7, 6-4, 7-6
(3). Nadal, coming off a rain-delayed match that ended at 12:43 a.m., fell behi
nd 3-1 in the third-set tiebreaker and never recovered.
''I was there during the whole match with the right intensity, with the right at
titude, doing the things that I have to do, trying to be more aggressive, trying
to go to the net more often,'' Nadal said. ''That's what I did. But today I pla
yed against an opponent that played a fantastic match.''
Lopez will play Roger Federer, the six-time tournament champion who beat Kevin A
nderson 6-1, 6-1 in only 55 minutes to reach the quarterfinals.
''It's a pleasure to play that way because it doesn't happen very often that you
feel this good,'' said Federer, who had only eight unforced errors.
On the women's side, Williams needed only 54 minutes to beat Karin Knapp 6-0, 62. She lost just 12 points while winning the first nine games.

Williams, the defending Cincinnati champion, is using the tournament as a final

tuneup for the U.S. Open, where she'll try to complete a calendar Grand Slam swe
ep. Her quarterfinals opponent is Ana Ivanovic, who beat Sloane Stephens 2-6, 64, 6-1.
Williams beat Ivanovic in straight sets to win her first Cincinnati title last y
ear.
''It will be a really good match for me and kind of test where I am, you know, j
ust in general,'' Williams said. ''Yeah, so I look forward to that.''
A right forearm injury forced Swiss teen Belinda Bencic to withdraw after she dr
opped the first set against seventh-seeded Lucie Safarova. The 12th-seeded Benci
c said she didn't think the injury was very serious, but it was too soon to know
if she could play in next week's tournament at New Haven, Connecticut. The 18-y
ear-old said her forearm has been sore for some time.
Bencic was coming off the biggest moment of her brief career. She upset Williams
in the semifinals at Toronto last week and went on to win the tournament.
Victoria Azarenka became the fourth woman to withdraw from the tournament when s
he had to quit her evening match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova because of an
injured upper left leg. It bothered her as she won the first set 6-1, and she qu
it three games into the second set.
''Such a short period of time before the U.S. Open, it's a little bit dangerous,
'' she said. ''I had to unfortunately make that decision. It hurts a little bit
because I have been playing so well. Obviously I felt like I had that match in c
ontrol.''
--AP freelance writer Mark Schmetzer contributed to this report.
--Follow Joe Kay on Twitter: http://twitter.com/apjoekay

taken from tennis.com

the first top comment honestly describes how i feel about nadal , i think his is
sue might even be beyond osing confidence at this point cause we all know he s g
reat , but i don t think he recovered well
this is the comment
Danny Dubreuil 16 minutes ago
Great games today, lots of drama. And as usual, after all these guys struggled i
n the heat and humidity (Murray looked like he was about to die on the court), H
is Highness Federer won comfortably his cozy night session. And he plays again a
t night Friday. I know I've said it before but I just can't swallow how unfair
this is and I can't understand why the other guys just take it without saying an
ything. Of course, if you get universal disapproval for mouthing at Wawrinka, im
agine how the universe would react to anyone protesting against preferential tre
atment given to Mr. Perfection himself. I was a Federer fan for almost ten years
and now I can't wait to see him retire so that all this bowing and curtsying f
inally stops. I don't think Rafa, even with everything he achieved in his career
, will get the same treatment when he gets to be 34 years old, assuming he still
plays tennis at that age. Federer is like those Swiss banks: he's had it all bu

t he's still greedy and tournament authorities give him every opportunity to get
what he wants
also i really really thouht cilic should have been able to win that match agains
t guasquet.
thank you