Djokovic into semifinals at Eastbourne, Kerber out

Serbia's Novak Djokovic in action during his quarter final match against USA's Donald Young at the Eastbourne International in Eastbourne, Britain on June 29, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

EASTBOURNE, England — Novak Djokovic converted his fourth match point to beat Donald Young 6-2, 7-6 (9) Thursday and advance to the semifinals at the Eastbourne International, a warmup event for Wimbledon.

The top-seeded Djokovic saved two set points, on Young's serve at 5-4 and on his own serve in the tiebreaker, and clinched victory with a return winner.

"I'm just glad the way I kind of held my composure, my nerves," said Djokovic, the world No 4. "This is the kind of match situations that I was looking forward to having, and I'm glad it happened today and I managed to overcome that."Djokovic will next play Daniil Medvedev after the Russian player beat fourth-seeded Steve Johnson 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 on a day when the tournament played catch-up after rain delays early in the week.

Second-seeded Gael Monfils will play seventh-seeded Richard Gasquet in the other semifinal after they both won two matches — in the second round and then the quarterfinals — on Thursday.

In the quarterfinals, Monfils defeated Bernard Tomic 7-6 (4), 6-0 and Gasquet beat third-seeded John Isner 6-3, 6-2.

In the women's tournament, Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep, the top two seeded players, lost in the quarterfinals.

The top-ranked Kerber was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Johanna Konta, who was joined in the semifinals by fellow British player Heather Watson after her 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 win over Barbora Strycova.

Halep lost 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 to sixth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, who next plays Watson.

Konta plays third-seeded Karolina Pliskova, a 6-7 (7), 6-2, 6-4 winner over Svetlana Kuznetsova.

AP