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Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have advance to the semifinals of the first tennis Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open, and now top-seeded Novak Djokovic, the WagerWeb.com tournament tennis bets favorite, and No. 4 Andy Murray look to join Rafa and Federer when they take the court late tonight U.S. time Down Under.

Djokovic, the world No. 1 and defending champion, takes on fifth-seeded David Ferrer of Spain. Djokovic was pushed in his last match by Aussie Lleyton Hewitt. Up two sets and 3-0 in the third, the wheels came off. Djokovic was stretched to four sets and even had to fend off a break point in the infancy of the fourth when the score was tied. He finally put the banged-up Hewitt away 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals.

Djokovic’s serve and forehand, in particular, tailed off. In the first two sets, he made a combined five forehand unforced errors. The number rose to 14 in the last two. His first-serve percentage fell in the middle of the third, and overall Djokovic was broken four times.

Djokovic’s next opponent, Ferrer, is similar to Hewitt: He hustles for every ball and is a fine returner. But at this juncture of their careers, he’s better than Hewitt. Mind you, Ferrer won’t be the overwhelming crowd favorite Wednesday, as “Rusty” was.

Ferrer topped Djokovic at the year-end championships in London in December, and even if the Serb was fatigued, Ferrer will take confidence from the 6-3, 6-1 victory indoors. That result allowed Ferrer, a semifinalist in Melbourne last year, to edge closer in their head to heads. He trails 6-5.

Murray, seeded fourth and looking for his third straight trip to the finals of this tournament, faces No. 24 seed Kei Nishikori of Japan. Nishikori’s defeat of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga moved him into his first grand slam quarter-final and also made him the first Japanese male to make it into the last eight at the Australian Open in 80 years. Before Nishikori, Shuzo Matsuoka was the only Japanese player to reach the latter stages of a Grand Slam event, when he made the 1995 Wimbledon quarterfinals.

Murray beat the 22-year-old Nishikori 6-0 6-3 in the semifinals of the Shanghai Masters in 2011 in the pair’s only previous match.

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