Murray dominated Djokovic in the first set and held him off in the second.

“It’s not easy. You have to try to be as consistent as much as you can if you want to stay at the top,” Djokovic said. “You have players like Andy, still young and up and coming. ...

“Now there’s a lot of great players, and everybody is working hard to get to the top.”

Murray, who had lost all four previous head-to-heads, chased down everything and made difficult shot after difficult shot.

“It’s a big win mentally for me,” Murray said. “You know, the last three times I played him, I lost pretty badly.”

Djokovic, for his part, committed 36 unforced errors to Murray’s 19, with 20 of those coming off his forehand.

“In general, I was not really happy with my performance,” Djokovic said.

Murray will play second-seeded Rafael Nadal in the semis after the Spanish star beat 10th-seeded Richard Gasquet of France 6-7 (12), 6-2, 6-1.

Meanwhile, seventh seeded James Blake became the latest big-name player to lose at the Rogers Cup when he was routed 6-1, 6-2 by Nicolas Kiefer of Germany. Kiefer, ranked 37th, will play Gilles Simon.

Kiefer and Simon are the unlikely victors in a bracket that featured Roger Federer, Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Roddick and Blake.

“I mean, I didn’t even know what’s happening,” said Simon, the 22nd-ranked Frenchman who defeated Croatia’s Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Friday. “I’m just so confident, I want to win every match, even if I’m tired. I know I’m playing very good at the moment.”

Kiefer dispatched Blake 6-1, 6-2. He said the win wasn’t quite as straight-forward as it looked.

“It wasn’t easy,” he said. “Maybe it looks easy, but I also have to play (at a) very high level.”

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