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 The Serb entered the quarter-final against the Japanese in the wake
of a five-set marathon with the indefatigable Gilles Simon, a match
he was desperate to forget after racking up exactly 100 unforced
errors.
Instead of heading to the practice courts to re-tune his game, the
world number one put his feet up to clear his mind.
"I didn't hit a tennis ball," he said in a courtside interview after
mowing down seventh seed Nishikori in just over two hours under the
floodlights at Rod Laver Arena.
"And it happens sometimes it's actually good to rest your mind and
rest your body. Less is more sometimes.
"I think it's more (about hitting) a reset button because I think
I've played a lot of tennis in the last four or five weeks."
The Djokovic that faced Nishikori, the winner of their only previous
grand slam encounter in the 2014 U.S. Open semi-finals, was not far
from the imperious best of the man that clinched three of the four
majors last year.
But he landed only 57 percent of his first serves and was broken
twice in the third set as Nishikori finally began to loosen his
shoulders and start swinging.
He still ended up trouncing Nishikori though, committing exactly
half the unforced errors of his opponent.
Nishikori, who has nursed a wrist injury throughout his tournament,
left the court for treatment on a leg problem after being routed in
the first two sets.
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He returned to the court in more positive mode and edged 3-1 ahead
with an array of sweetly-struck winners but was unable to
consolidate on two service breaks and threw his racquet onto the
court in a rare show of frustration.
Djokovic clinched the decisive break in an epic seventh game and
sealed the win with a sizzling cross-court backhand winner.
The Serb enters his 29th grand slam semi-final and sixth at
Melbourne Park where he will face 17-times grand slam champion
Federer, who he beat for the U.S. Open and Wimbledon titles last
year.
The pair's win-loss record is perfectly weighted at 22-22, though
Djokovic won five of their eight meetings last season.
"It keeps going," Djokovic said of the rivalry.
"My best is what is going to be necessary to win against him.
Hopefully I'll be able to deliver."
(Editing by John O'Brien and Martyn Herman)
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