Murray reaches semifinals at Tennis Masters Cup

Nov 12, 2008 - 5:11 PM By Andrew Mullen PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SHANGHAI, China (Ticker) -- Andy Murray secured a maiden Masters Cup semifinal berth after breezing to a 6-4, 6-2 win over world No. 9 Gilles Simon on Wednesday.

Making his first appearance at the season-ending eight-man tournament, the fourth-ranked Murray followed up his opening win over American Andy Roddick to advance to the last four with a match to spare after producing an impressive display at Qi Zhong Tennis Stadium.

After shocking two-time defending champion Roger Federer on his Masters Cup debut on Monday, Simon still has a chance to advance from the red group, which now also contains No. 27 Radek Stepanek after Roddick was forced to withdraw with an ankle injury.

Federer bounced back from that setback later Wednesday by topping Stepanek, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, and will face Murray in his final round-robin match with his chances of advancing on the line.

"The situation I'm in is in my control," Federer said. "If I win (against Murray), I'm through. That's the similar situation that I was in last year, except last year I was through before my match in the end so it was kind of a funny turn of events."

Last year, Federer lost to Fernando Gonzalez before securing a fifth Masters Cup title with wins over Nikolay Davydenko, Roddick, Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer.

Murray raced out of the blocks and broke Simon twice at the start of the match and, after surviving a resurgence from the Frenchman, who he beat to win the Madrid Masters, battled to win the first set.

But unlike the second-set collapse witnessed against Roddick, Murray completely dominated against Simon and raced to the finish line.

Murray made a great start, breaking Simon in the first game as the Frenchman dumped a backhand into the net and, after double-faulting on game point and surviving two break points, the Scot eventually opened up a 2-0 lead, with the first two games lasting 15 minutes.

A quick break of the Simon serve in the next game handed Murray a 3-0 lead after the Frenchman sent a seemingly-regulation volley into the net.

Murray continued to dominate and easily claimed the fourth game following a string of errors from Simon before the Frenchman finally got on the board as Murray wasted two break points after sending a volley just long and Simon pulled out a crucial big serve.

Simon grabbed a break back as Murray smashed an overhead into the net at game point - which brought cheers from the crowd, who were fearing a rout - before holding to briefly pull within a game.

Murray's mid-set wobble and Simon's resurgence continued as the Scot battled to stave off two break points, the second saved following his first ace of the match, before finally taking a thrilling eighth game.

And at his first opportunity, Murray claimed the first set as Simon dumped a forehand into the net.

Murray imploded in the second set of his opening-round win over Roddick, and was forced to battle through his first service game of the second set as Simon threatened with three break points.

But each time he came undone at the crucial moment with several rash errors, which had seen him convert only one break point out of eight.

Murray's third break of the match followed as Simon sent three wayward forehands wide before a straightforward service game handed Murray a 3-1 lead.

Simon continued to ship errors as Murray again broke the Frenchman's serve at the third time of asking.

With the match on the line at 5-1, Simon held, but it only delayed the inevitable as Murray sealed victory in one hour and 33 minutes.

Murray was confident in his game plan despite Simon's impressive comeback in the middle of the opening set.

"He's tough," the British number one told Sky Sports. "I just had to try and stay focused at the end of the first set.

"I had a chance to go 5-0 up and I didn't take it, and he got some confidence after that. But I knew I had to keep making him move, and eventually he started to break down.

"He made some mistakes in the second set and I capitalized."

Murray revealed he felt added pressure today following the withdrawal of Roddick and Stepanek's elevation into the group.

"Stepanek's turned up without his own racquets, he borrowed some socks off me earlier and he hasn't got his contact lenses either," Murray said "So I knew I had to win the match because I can't see him winning too many games. I was a bit nervous because I knew I had to come through."

The Scot knows he will be in the semifinals irrespective of his result against Federer on Friday, but another win against the 13-time grand slam champion is not to be sniffed at.

"Obviously, I want to try to win the match," Murray added. "To beat Federer is always a great achievement."

Federer, who said after the match that he was unable to practice Tuesday due to a stomach upset, struggled against Stepanek even though his opponent did not have his own socks, racquet or contact lenses.

The Czech forced the first set to a tiebreak before Federer claimed back-to-back mini-breaks to take a 4-1 lead.

The second set also looked destined for a tiebreak until Federer broke in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead and served for the match.

Stepanek was able to produce a break of his own, but Federer raced to an 0-40 lead at 5-4 and secured the win as the Czech again double-faulted with the pressure on.

"I've always had a lot of success in Masters Cup play," Federer said. "This time we will see. It's important to rest up and see what happens against Murray because only a good performance will do the job."

First prize here is $625,000, and if the champion goes undefeated he will receive a total of $1.34 million.