Djokovic not perfect

Rafa Nadal inflicted more pain on world number one Novak Djokovic in the Rogers Cup semi-finals on Saturday as the Serbian world number one went from being “close to perfection” to far from flawless on his favourite surface.

Nadal, a 12-time grand slam champion, won a thrilling contest under the lights 6-4 3-6 7-6(2) to set up a title showdown with local hope Milos Raonic.

It was Nadal’s second successive victory over Djokovic at this stage of a tournament following their epic French Open meeting in June.

“Beating the best player in the world, here, is a big result for me,” Nadal told reporters.

“I knew when I arrived after one month off, when you play in a Masters 1000, hard court, a fast surface; you can go out in the first round. But the real thing was completely different.

“I played a very high level…I made the right decisions in the important moments.”

Djokovic had taken an imposing recent hard-court record against Nadal into the match, having won their last four finals on the surface.

“I said yesterday the only chance to win against Novak, I have to play aggressive. If not, I cannot play very well on this kind of surface. And I did,” Nadal added.

Djokovic had described his quarter-final win over Richard Gasquet on Friday “as close to perfection” as he could get.