Andy Murray sets up Novak Djokovic clash in Shanghai Masters with victory over Tomas Berdych

The Scot meets the world No 1 in the semi-finals

Andy Murray in action (GETTY IMAGES)

Novak Djokovic has been sweeping aside his rivals during one of the best seasons any player has ever enjoyed but could have his work cut out against Andy Murray when the world No 1 and No 2 meet here on Saturday in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Rolex Masters.

A resurgent Murray produced one of his best performances of the year to crush Tomas Berdych 6-1, 6-3 in just 79 minutes on Friday. The Czech has given Murray trouble in the past, having always taken at least eight games off him and won six of their previous 12 meetings, but was crushed under the weight of the Scot's crunching ground strokes and blistering returns.

Although Murray's Grand Slam season ended in disappointment with his fourth-round defeat to Kevin Anderson at the US Open last month, he has performed at a consistently high level all year. Having reached the final of the Australian Open and semi-finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, he has now made the last four of six of the seven Masters Series tournaments he has played, having missed out only in Rome, where he withdrew because of injury.

In Djokovic, nevertheless, Murray will be facing the year's outstanding performer and a player with a remarkable record in this part of the world. Since the first week of January Djokovic has reached 12 finals in a row. Last week he became the first player to earn more than $15m (about £9.7m) in prize money in a single campaign and he has already secured the season-ending world No 1 ranking for the fourth time in five years. He has won this title twice and Beijing six times and lost just one of his last 37 matches in China.

Murray ended a run of eight successive defeats to Djokovic when he beat him in their most recent meeting in the final of the Montreal Masters two months ago. Djokovic, however, leads their head-to-head record by 19 wins to nine.

"I'm aware it's going to be an extremely difficult match," Murray said. "He's played fantastic the whole year. His record shows that."

Djokovic did not see himself as a clear favourite but added: "I'll try to use the confidence and the kind of comfortable optimistic approach that I had to all the matches in these last couple of weeks."

The world No 1 recorded his 15th successive victory to beat Bernard Tomic 7-6, 6-1 in the quarter-finals. Tomic became the first player since the US Open to win more than three games in a set against Djokovic but faded after he lost the tie-break 8-6.

The other semi-final will see Rafael Nadal take on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Nadal beat the world No 4, Stan Wawrinka, 6-2, 6-1 to record his first victory over a top-five opponent since his victory over Djokovic in the 2014 French Open final 16 months ago. Tsonga beat Anderson 7-6, 5-7, 6-4.

After his least productive season for 11 years Nadal is finally running into some form - on his least favourite surface. The Spaniard, who has not won a Grand Slam title this year for the first time since 2004, had not reached the last four of a hard-court tournament for more than 18 months until last week, when he lost to Djokovic in the final of the China Open in Beijing.

"That's a big improvement for me," Nadal said. "In terms of confidence, in terms of level of tennis, I am playing better."

Heather Watson's run at the Hong Kong Open ended in a quarter-final defeat to Australia's Sam Stosur. The British No 2 led by a set and 3-1 only to lose 11 games in a row as Stosur secured a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory in just under two hours.