Novak Djokovic suffered a scare before beating Ernests Gulbis in three sets to secure a place in the semi-finals of the Rogers Cup in Montreal on Friday.
Djokovic appeared to be heading out of the tournament when Latvian world number 87 Gulbis won the first set, secured a break of serve in the second and then proceeded to carve out two match points.
But the world number one showed the sort of resilience that has seen him win 27 out of 29 hard-court matches in 2015 going into this encounter when he fought back to win the second set in a tie break before racing away with the decider to seal a 5-7 7-6 (9/7) 6-1 victory.
"You have to give credit to (Gulbis) for playing an excellent match," Djokovic, a three-time winner in Montreal, told the ATP World Tour website.
"He was always making me play an extra shot, and putting a lot of pressure on my second serve.
"I had a lot of chances and closed it out in the end, but he had a couple of match points and it would've been deserved if he had won this match tonight."
Djokovic will play Jeremy Chardy for a place in Sunday's final after the Frenchman saved seven match points to beat big-serving 16th seed John Isner in a closely-fought match where all three sets went to tie breaks.
Play finally got under way after a 90-minute rain delay and Chardy lost the first set but recovered to win the next two to wrap up a 6-7 (9/11) 7-6 (15/13) 7-6 (7/4) triumph.
The victory, Chardy's fourth in a row against the American world number 12, enabled him to book his first appearance in the semi-finals of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event.
Source: PA
