Miami Open: Vika waltzes ahead

Novak Djokovic chases the ball in the quarter-final against Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic at the Miami Open on Wednesday. Djokovic won 6-3, 6-3.(Photo: AP)

Top-ranked defending champion Novak Djokovic withstood back spasms throughout the second set Wednesday to defeat Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-3 and reach the ATP and WTA Miami Open semi-finals.

Djokovic, trying to match Andre Agassi’s record of six Miami titles with his third in a row, will play Belgian 15th seed David Goffin on Friday for a berth in Sunday’s final.

The 28-year-old Serbian won his 14th consecutive match at the hardcourt event and his 28th out of 29, but needed a gritty performance after back pain began early in the second set, prompting him to have massage therapy before serving in the sixth game.

On the women’s side, reigning Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber, the second seed from Germany, and two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka of Belarus advanced to a Thursday semifinal showdown.

Both have finals wins over top-ranked Serena Williams this year, Kerber at the Australian Open and Azarenka at Indian Wells.

Berdych lost his 10th consecutive match to Djokovic, whose domination of their career rivalry reached 23-2. Berdych’s last victory over Djokovic was in a 2013 Rome quarterfinal.

Djokovic blasted a crosscourt forehand winner to break Berdych for a 3-1 lead and held from there to claim the first set, in which the Czech had 21 unforced errors.

Berdych surrendered a break to open the second set but Djokovic first reached for his lower back in the next game but held and broke again to end the match.

Goffin matched his semifinal run from Indian Wells by downing French 18th seed Gilles Simon 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.

“Feeling great,” Goffin said. “Confident for the rest of the week and the season.”

But he is 0-3 against Djokovic, losing in the 2013 French Open first round and at Cincinnati in 2013 and 2015.

“He’s going to be very dangerous but I like my chances,” Djokovic said.

Former world number one Azarenka defeated British 24th seed Johanna Konta 6-4, 6-2 while Kerber cruised into the semifinals, downing US 22nd seed Madison Keys 6-3, 6-2.

The German second seed, the last of the top 12 remaining, is 1-6 lifetime against Azarenka, but won their most recent meeting in the Australian Open quarterfinals on the way to the title.

“We have played some really tough matches,” Kerber said. “I know I have to play my best tennis against her. I will be ready.”

The eighth-ranked Azarenka, who won the 2009 and 2011 Miami titles, will jump to fifth in the world next week.

Azarenka could become only the third woman to win back-to-back in Miami humidity and Indian Wells desert heat after Steffi Graf in 1994 and 1996 and Kim Clijsters in 2005. “If I win, that’s great,” she said. “Right now I’m looking to the semis.”

Two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova meets Swiss 19th seed Timea Bacsinszky in the other semifinal. The 30-year-old Russian has won both their previous meetings.