Novak Djokovic maintained his unbeaten start to 2011 with an epic three-hour 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7/2) victory over fourth seed Andy Murray in the Rome Masters semi-finals on Saturday. The world number two took his run to 36 straight wins this year and will face world number one Rafael Nadal, who beat Richard Gasquet 7-5, 6-1, in Sunday's final in a repeat of last week's Madrid Masters title match which Djokovic won.
Djokovic, struggling with a leg problem, demonstrated just why he has proved so hard to beat with a never-say-die attitude even when Murray was just two points from victory, serving at 5-4 in the decider.
But the Serb admitted he faces a race against time to be fit to play Nadal. "I'll do what I can, I have a team of people who will do their utmost to get me ready, there's not much time but we'll see how I play," he said.
"The important thing will be whether I'm fit or not, that will play an important role so we'll see how fit I am (on Sunday)." Murray, who turns 24 on Sunday, said: "I played my best tennis against the best player in the world at the moment."
"It's always very physical against Novak because he moves well. I had chances to win and probably should have done." Just as he had done in the quarter-final against Florian Mayer, Murray started slowly and the only game he won was when he broke Djokovic in a marathon third game.
However a change of shirt, from white to blue, brought with it a change of fortunes. In the first set Djokovic had been finding the corners and running Murray ragged around the back court before dropping slices just over the net and out of his reach.
But in the second Murray found a way to stay in points for longer, to make Djokovic play more shots and errors started to creep into the Serb's game. The sixth game was crucial where both players showed signs of nerves but it was Djokovic who cracked, hitting a forehand long on break point.