Djokovic Advances to Semifinals after Hard-Fought Match

 TORONTO, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- In the most dramatic match played at the Rogers Cup tournament, Novak Djokovic managed to overpower veteran Tommy Haas 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in quarterfinals.

Despite his valiant¹ efforts, Haas, 34, the oldest player in the tournament, lost the third set after tying with the 25-year-old Serbian powerhouse in the first two sets.

Despite the loss, Haas, whose career high ranking was No. 2 more than a decade ago in May 2002, played no impressively against current No. 2 Djokovic with his smart, risk-taking style that delighted and thrilled the audience.

Times and again Haas sent Djokovic scrambling² all over his half of the court chasing the ball, with his wicked backhand shots and uncanny ability to detect and seize every opportunity to send drop shots right off the net. He missed a few times, but succeeded more times.

But in the end, it was not enough to overcome Djokovic's dominance from the baseline. Even if he was not in his best form fresh off the Olympics matches and with lingering jetlag, Djokovic again reminded the audience why he is among the world's best tennis players as he hit the tennis ball to incredible angles on his opponent's side.

Djokovic, who appeared tense on the court, was gracious about his worthy³ opponent after the match.

"Tommy is a great player," he told reporters.

"After years of injuries and surgeries, he comes back very strong, very fit, plays really well on faster surfaces."

"He made a couple really good wins here and he was on the roll (sic), so it was a really tough match," said Djokovic.

Djokovic will face fellow Serbian Janko Tipsarevic in the semifinals on Saturday. Before the Djokovic-Haas match, Tipsarevic defeated Spain's Marcel Granollers on the same court.

In the other quarterfinals, Toronto's own Milos Raonic lost to American John Isner. While Isner's fellow American and the 2011 Rogers Cup runner up, Mardy Fish, went down to defeat against a surging Richard Gasquet, who upset world's No. 7 Tomas Berdych in two straight sets in today's first match in the main stadium.

Every player in the four quarterfinal matches played twice today, as the tournament schedule was condensed after rain shut down the tournament all day on Thursday.

Earlier today Isner defeated German Philip Kohlschreiber, Haas won over Czech player Radek Stepanek, and Fish overcome Juan Monaco of Argentina.

1 valiant   

adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人

参考例句：

• He had the fame of being very valiant.他的勇敢是出名的。
• Despite valiant efforts by the finance minister,inflation rose to 36%.尽管财政部部长采取了一系列果决措施，通货膨胀率还是涨到了36%。

2 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。