Ruthless Novak Djokovic warned there is much more to come from him as the imperious Serb reached his sixth consecutive Wimbledon semi-final, his seventh overall, and his 20th in the previous 21 major tournaments.
He eased past Marin Cilic 6-4 6-4 6-4 as the Croatian, 26, was no match for the world number one.
It set up a last four showdown with the gutsy Richard Gasquet, who he has beaten on 12 of the last 13 occasions, after the Frenchman beat Stan Wawrinka.
Djokovic revealed he had earlier apologised to the ball girl he appeared to scream at during Tuesday’s quarter-final win over Kevin Anderson.
Yesterday, the Wimbledon champion imposed himself with another game of powerful authority and didn’t face a single break point as he strolled to a 13th career win over the world number nine.
Sumptuous tennis perhaps it wasn’t, but certainly efficient enough to head into Friday’s semi-final long before his semi counterpart on Court One.
Djokovic, 28, said: “It makes me proud to be here for my sixth semi-final, a lot of others want this trophy.
“I managed to take three decisive, crucial breaks in each set – I didn’t allow Marin to get into the match.
“I have been playing really good but I have that extra gear to come out in the final stages. I still think I can do certain things better and improve.
“It’s a great effort from Richard to beat Stan who is in great form. Richard’s fitness has improved a lot and clearly he has mentally had to stay tough.”
Djokovic made headlines after appearing to lose his cool with the ball girl and he said: “I have talked with the girl and she says she didn’t mind. If there was anything I did wrong, I apologise.
“It was in the moment of the battle. I am sorry she was there at the moment. The media, one in particular, like to make a big thing of it. I was a ball kid myself, remember.”
Djokovic broke early to give the US Open champion a clear picture of his quarter-final objectives. The second set was about picking his moment, it came in the ninth game and he served out the set.
The third set was again about timing, breaking late so the two-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist had little time to recover.
Cilic said: “He was very, very solid in all areas of his game from the beginning until the end. There were no break-points, that doesn’t happen often.
“A few things made a difference, his serve was strong and I couldn’t get through it but I think I have showed in a few matches that the level of my game is in a good way.”
