Serbia’s Djokovic has gained 24 Grand Slam titles – a males’s file – and claimed a long-awaited Olympic gold earlier this yr.
The 37-year-old will face American world quantity seven Taylor Fritz in Saturday’s semi-final as he bids for a landmark one hundredth title.
Fritz, 26, comfortably beat Belgium’s David Goffin 6-3 6-4 on Friday to e-book his place within the final 4. It prolonged a run that has seen Fritz progress previous the third spherical for the primary time in Shanghai.
Djokovic, who will now compete in a 78th Masters 1,000 semi-final, stated he was motivated by matches towards the upcoming era.
“It retains me going, and pushes me to actually dig deep, and to indicate to the world that I’ve nonetheless bought it in my legs, that I can nonetheless go the gap with the younger guys,” he stated.
“I am tremendous glad that I managed to win this very difficult match.”
Mensik, 19, held his nerve within the opening set towards Djokovic.
But Djokovic, a file four-time winner of the event, was in a position to regroup after a scrappy efficiency within the tie-break and breezed by the second set, earlier than placing the match to mattress after two hours and 21 minutes.
Though US Open runner-up Fritz may present a tricky take a look at for Djokovic, the adorned veteran holds a 9-0 profession file from their previous conferences.
