It was an intense fight between Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic as they battled it out last night for the quarter-final of the US Open.

Djokovic won 7-6 (7-1), 6-7 (1-7), 6-2, 6-4 and the Serb will then be facing Japan's Kei Nishikori. Whoever wins between them will go through to the Monday's final event. Djokovic clearly worked hard to win the game. Thanks to his strong stamina, he was able to push further against Murray who was already tiring in the later sets.

Djokovic said "We both gave our best. At times it was not that nice, a lot of unforced errors (48 for the winner, 64 for Murray), but it was a very physical battle. I didn't expect anything less. The last five times we played we went over three or four hours."

Djokovic said of Murray style of playing "He has changed his game for the better in the past couple of years, working with Ivan [Lendl]. He has immense quality on any surface. We played a five-set match here a couple of years ago and I knew he was going to go for his shots - and that the more aggressive one was going to win it."

Now that he is done with Murray, Djokovic is now preparing himself to face Nishikori in the semis. He said "My thoughts are just directed to sleeping - or what do you say, let's party!" which the dregs of the capacity crowd greeted with approval at gone 1am. "No, I think my coach would chase me with a baseball bat if I did. We haven't played against each other for a while, but he is a very talented player, serves very well for his height."

Murray on the other hand was disappointed over his lose saying "I'd say definitely physically he was fresher, Well, he appeared fresher than me. Whether he was or not I don't know; maybe he does a better job of hiding it than me. Towards the end I tried to hang in as best I could. The pace of my serve slowed significantly towards the end of the third set."

Adding "But I played well. Especially in the first couple of sets, there was some good tennis. I was down in the first set and I fought back, although I played a poor tie-break. I was down in the second set and a break and I fought back. So I fought hard - but it wasn't enough."