Paris: Big serving Milos Raonic upset world number two Roger Federer 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 to make the Paris Masters semi-finals on Friday and stay alive in the race to reach the World Tour Finals.
The victory for the Canadian was his first over Federer in seven meetings and also snapped the Swiss maestro’s 14-match winning streak.
Novak Djokovic made it an even worse day for the Swiss 17-time Grand Slam winner when he knocked out Andy Murray 7-5, 6-2 to book his semi-final place.
The Serbian world number one stays on track to maintain his top ranking with Federer less than 500 points behind him coming into Paris.
There are 1,000 points on offer at Bercy with a maximum 1,500 available for an unbeaten run to the title at the World Tour Finals.
Djokovic will next face Japan’s Kei Nishikori, who became the first Asian player to reach the World Tour Finals with a gutsy 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 win over Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer.
“I knew before the match there was going to be a lot of long rallies and he’s a player who plays well on all surfaces but I’m very happy and hope to continue my run here,” said Djokovic who recently became a father.
Winner of six ATP titles, including in Washington this year, Raonic must claim the Paris title to guarantee his place in London for the eight-man season finals.
In a match dominated by serve, Raonic took the first set in a tie-break before forcing the only break of the match at 5-5 in the second before closing out the tie.
Firing down 21 aces, Raonic always had his illustrious opponent under pressure and served out the match in just over 90 minutes.
Thomas Berdych, meanwhile, guaranteed his place at the World Tour finals for the fifth straight year when he defeated South African Kevin Anderson.
The Czech, who won the Bercy tournament on his debut in 2005 - his only Masters title to date - came through a tight contest 6-7, (4/7), 6-4, 6-4 in just under three hours.
It was the 12th victory for Berdych over Anderson in as many meetings.
“We’ve had some very close matches and some five-setters but I think the statistics do not tell the real story,” said Berdych.
“It’s always tough against Kevin and today we played nearly three hours but I think it was a great match.”
Berdych is chasing an 11th ATP title and third this year after victories at Rotterdam and Stockholm.
The players now qualified for London are Djokovic, Federer, Stan Wawrinka, Marin Cilic, Murray and Berdych with Ferrer and Nishikori holding the last two spots and trying to hold off the charging Raonic.
