Murray turns on the style to reach Queen's final

Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 7:23 AM Posted by Beijing News


Top seed Andy Murray swept into his first Queen's final with a ruthless 6-2, 6-4 win over Juan Carlos Ferrero on Saturday.

Murray is bidding to become the first Briton to win the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event since Bunny Austin in 1938 and he is now within touching distance of achieving his aim.

Queen's was the venue for Murray's first Tour victory in a singles match four years ago and the 22-year-old has once again been right at home on the grass courts of west London.

The world number three, who plays either Andy Roddick or James Blake in Sunday's final, hasn't dropped a set in four matches here and, in reaching his fifth ATP Tour final this year, he also become the first British finalist here since Tim Henman in 2002.

"I felt it was a good match. I started well but the second set was very close," Murray said. "I'm obviously happy to win in two sets. I was very happy with the way I played all round.

"I didn't have the easiest draw so it's been a good week all around and hopefully I can finish it off on Sunday."

Ferrero, a former world number one and French Open champion, has enjoyed something of a resurgence this season, with his first Tour win in six years coming in Casablanca in April, but even he was no match for Murray in his mood.

Murray set the tone right from the first point when he guided a sublime passing shot down the line. Then some typically obdurate defence from Murray frustrated Ferrero on break point and he tamely netted a forehand to give the Scot a break in the opening game.

Both players unleashed some mighty blows in the early stages as they tried to bludgeon their way to supremacy, but it was Murray who hit harder and more accurately.

When Ferrero's forehand clipped the net and looped beyond the baseline to hand Murray another break in the fifth game, the first set was all but over.

Murray has been serving with laser-guided precision during his week here and there was never any chance he would surrender the lead.

With the first set wrapped up in less than 30 minutes, Murray seemed to lose his concentration and squandered three break points at the start of the second.

More break points came and went in Ferrero's next service game as the Spaniard began to find his range, but Murray is the kind of relentless scurrier who can drive an opponent to distraction.

So it proved in the seventh game of the set as Murray broke again to move ahead 4-3 when Ferrero, playing in the first grass-court semi-final of his career, dragged a forehand wide going for a big winner.

Ferrero held to make Murray serve out the match and he did just that to complete another imperious performance.





Schalit

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