Novak Djokovic into Eastbourne semi-finals with win over Donald Young

Novak Djokovic has moved into the last four at Eastbourne without dropping a set

Novak Djokovic continued his return to winning ways with a battling victory over America's Donald Young to reach the Aegon International semi-finals.

Having accepted a wildcard Djokovic is the top seed and followed up a victory over Vasek Pospisil in the second round with a 6-2 7-6 success on Thursday.


Djokovic, who has dropped to no 4 in the world rankings, powered through the first set in just 26 minutes but the second proved to be a tougher test as Young responded to lead the second set 5-4.

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Serving to level the match he blew his chance and a couple of set points to allow Djokovic to break back before the set went to a tie-break.

Another set point came and went for Young before Djokovic eventually edged the tie-break 11-9 on his fourth match point to end a second set that
lasted more than an hour.

Next up for the Serb will be Daniil Medvedev who beat defending champion and fourth-seed Steve Johnson 6-3 2-6 6-3.

Both men were playing their second match of the day as the tournament attempted to catch-up on the rain delays that hampered the start of the event Wimbledon warm-up tournament in Eastbourne.

Johnson had earlier finished off his contest with Italian qualifier Thomas Fabbiano, advancing 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 before losing to Medvedev who had earlier beaten Robin Haase in three sets.

In the day's earlier completed second round matches second seed Gael Monfils ended the hopes of the last remaining Briton in the men's event, beating Cameron Norrie in straight sets.

Gael Monfils won twice on Thursday to reach the semi-final

Having resumed leading 6-3 2-1, Monfils lost just one more game to advance to the last eight where he went on to beat Bernard Tomic who had also played earlier in the day, beating sixth seed Mischa Zverev for the loss of just five games in 51 minutes.

But the Aussie was no match for Monfils on their return with the Frenchman running out a 7-6 6-0 winner to advance to a all French semi-final showdown with seventh seed Richard Gasquet who beat third seed John Isner 6-3 6-2 in just 54 minutes.

Gasquet had earlier beaten Kevin Anderson 6-4 6-4 and Isner saw off Dusan Lajovic 3-6 7-6 7-6 before their quarter final where Gasquet prevailed to advance to a fourth meeting of the season with Monfils.