World No. 1 Andy Murray continued his winning ways with a 7-6(4), 7-5 victory over Nicolas Almagro on Thursday at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. The Scot’s win streak extended to 27 as he fought past the Spaniard and tricky conditions in two hours and nine minutes. Murray awaits the winner of the match between third seed Tomas Berdych and fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semi-finals.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic also continued his impressive start to the 2017 ATP World Tour season by recording his 10th match win in Doha. The World No. 2 defeated 38-year-old qualifier Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-3 in 91 minutes for a place in the last four.

“It’s same for both players, so there is not much you can do,” Djokovic said of the challenging windy conditions in Doha. “The force of the nature is like that. You have to accept and try to embrace it, really be one with the wind, otherwise it’s not going to be good day for you.

“I thought in terms of my performance, under the circumstances I put the level up again, which is great. So everything is going in the right direction.”

Djokovic will next face Fernando Verdasco, who withstood 13 aces from Ivo Karlovic’s racquet in a 6-2, 7-5 victory. Djokovic has an 8-4 lead against the Spaniard in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, and won their most recent match 6-2, 6-2 in Doha last year.

“He’s a very complete player,” Djokovic said of Verdasco. “He’s got weapons from the forehand side, [a] big serve [and he’s] very strong.”

The top two players in the world practised ahead of their respective quarter-finals clashes, the Serbian tweeting:

Had a great warm up with @andy_murray today ?? pic.twitter.com/hM2sV06iSR

— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) January 5, 2017

In doubles, Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin upset top seeds and World No. 1 team Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares to reach the final. The all-French duo saved two of the four break points they faced for a 7-6(3), 7-6(6) victory in 96 minutes. They await the winners of the match between third seeds Vasek Pospisil/Radek Stepanek and Nicolas Almagro/Fernando Verdasco.

Australian Next Gen start Thanasi Kokkinakis is set to play his first ATP World Tour singles match in more than a year at the Apia International Sydney next week after a confidence-boosting run to the semi-finals of the Brisbane International doubles. Kokkinakis is happy with how his right shoulder has held up in two doubles wins with fellow Australian Jordan Thompson in Brisbane this week, including Thursday’s 1-6, 6-4, 10-7 upset of top seeds and reigning Wimbledon champions Pierre Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut.

“The body felt good today,” Kokkinakis said. “I feel I am still five to 10 percent off. Getting the confidence back in the body is the biggest thing.

“I’m excited (to take the Sydney wild card]. I was trying to play here but I just didn’t feel I was quite ready. I’m trying to train as much as I can because I didn’t have a massive pre-season trying to get healthy. Had it not been the Australian summer I probably would have taken more time, but it would be tough to miss two in a row for me. I’m really keen to play.”

Kokkinakis, 20, said that his decision to enter the Australian Open later this month would depend on his his body felt after his singles return in Sydney. “Obviously I want to play but honestly it’s 50/50 at the moment because I know how much of a step up five sets is,” he said. “If I don’t play singles I want to play the doubles at least, maybe even mixed.

In 2015 the Adelaide native reached a career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of 69 and finished (at No. 80) as one of four teenagers in the year-end Top 100. Kokkinakis underwent shoulder surgery on December 29, 2015. He did not play a tournament match on the ATP World Tour last year. His lone appearance came at the Rio Olympics.

Top seed Milos Raonic has delivered on his New Year’s resolution to move forward more in 2017, taking command at net in a 6-3, 6-2 opening-round win over Argentine Diego Schwartzman on Thursday at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp.

Raonic said that his decision to add former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek to his coaching team was based in large part to a shared belief that tapping further upside in the Canadian’s game will most likely come from more forays to the net. Against Schwartzman, Raonic ventured to net 22 times, winning on 12 occasions.

“I probably should have approached 12 more times and I probably should have won a few more,” said Raonic, who went 6/11 in the first set at the net. “I definitely want to, especially at the beginning, since obviously I didn’t take care of my serve so well. I hesitated, but also, with him, you’ve got to understand that he’s quite quick. So rarely do you get him sort of reaching for balls.

“If he’s able to get to the ball, it’s normally with two hands. So he can come up with some good shots, and he was able to do that today, passing some incredible backhands down the line. A few I should have made or should have covered better, I got a little bit lazy on. But I’ve got to put myself there to give myself an opportunity to get better at it.”

Raonic also hit 12 aces and won 75 per cent of his first-service points in the 69-minute victory. He broke for a 4-2 lead in the first set, then won five straight games after Schwartzman had broken serve in the first game of the second set.

“At the beginning I really struggled that first service game, and had another close service game before I started to get in on his games,” said World No. 3 Raonic, who will next face fifth seed Rafael Nadal or Mischa Zverev in the quarter-finals. “Then I could feel I started imposing myself on him. He started making some mistakes, and I was able to create some things, as well. I have to be glad with how I finished.”

Dominic Thiem and Grigor Dimitrov will face off in the quarter-finals after both advanced in straight sets.

Thiem saved all four break points against Aussie wild card Sam Groth to move into the last eight 7-6(5), 6-3. The fourth seed won only one point against the big-serving Groth’s first serve, but Thiem feasted on the Aussie’s second offering, winning 61 per cent (14/23) of those points.

Dimitrov, the seventh seed, converted all three break points against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut to advance 6-2, 6-4. Thiem beat Dimitrov in their only prior FedEx ATP Head2Head match-up last year in Acapulco.