Novak Djokovic has heaped praise on Andy Murray ahead of his meeting with the Scot in the semi-finals of the French Open on Friday.

The Serb is regarded by many as the favourite to win this year's tournament at Roland Garros and he further underlined his credentials by beating Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.

"He's playing some really good tennis and has really improved on clay," Yahoo Sport quotes Djokovic as saying.

"He's moving better, serving well and he's had some of the best ground-strokes in the game for around ten years now. He's an extremely talented player and he'll be motivated to go past the semi-finals for the first time here.

"Andy's a fighter, he has lots of experience of these big matches."

Murray has lost his previous seven matches against Djokovic, including this year's Australian Open final.