TENNIS Andy Murray beat Feliciano Lopez 6-3 6-4 in the quarter finals at Indian Wells to clinch his 10th consecutive win over the Spanish player. He set up a semifinal match against Novak Djokovic who took advantage of a walkover after the withdrawal of Bernard Tomic. Diego Sampaolo
Murray was broken only once while he was serving for the match at 5-2 in the second set.
With his 497th career win on the circuit the World Number 1 improved the British record of match wins held by Tim Henman. Murray is three wins away from becoming the 46th player to achieve the 500th milestone win in the Open Era.
“I thought I played a good match. Everytime he came to the net, I made it very difficult for him. I passed very well and that was important because it meant that he spent more time at the back of the court. When we were in the baseline rallies,I felt like I was able to dictate a lot of those points. Passing shots were important today”, said Murray.
Murray set up a semifinal blockbuster match against Novak Djokovic who did not need to play his quarter final as he took advantage of a walkover after Bernard Tomic announced five hours before the match that he was forced to withdraw due to a back injury. Tomic beat David Ferrer in straight sets in the third round scoring his first win against a top-10 player since July 2013 before defeating Thanasi Kokkinakis in the all- Australian fourth round match. After this match he complained of an aching wisdom tooth which added to the sore back that has been bothering him since the Memphis tournament last February.
Djokovic leads 16-8 in his head-to-head matches against Murray.
In the two remaining quarter finals on Friday four-time Indian Wells champion Roger Federer will face Tomas Berdych and Rafa Nadal will take on Milos Raonic.
Federer eased past US Jack Sock with 6-3 6-2 in windy conditions reaching his 50th milestone win at Indian Wells. His quarter final opponent will be Tomas Berdych who battled past Lukas Rosol in the all-Czech match with 6-2 4-6 6-4.
Federer, who won in the Californian desert in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2012, leads 12-6 in his previous 18 head-to-head matches against Berdych and beat the Czech player in three sets in their last match at Dubai last year. However, they have tied 3-3 in their past six head-to-head matches since 2011. Berdych won their last two Grand Slam matches and five of their nine meetings.
“We have not played on so many occasions over many years. I don’t know when we played the very first time but I have seen his game evolve, seen how he established in the top-10.
In their previous matches at this year’s Indian Wells Federer has not dropped a single set, including a straight-set win in the third round against Andreas Seppi in a re-match of this year’s third round clash at the Australian Open won by the Italian player. Berdych reached the quarter final stage after beating Sergiy Stakhovskiy and Steve Johnson in his previous two matches at this year’s Indian Wells tournament.
Berdych is bidding to become the first player to win 20 matches this year.
The winner of the Federer-Berdych match will face either Rafa Nadal or Milos Raonic who square off against in the other Friday’s quarter semifinal. In their last head-to-head match in Miami Nadal prevailed 6-4 in the third set last year. So far in this tournament neither Nadal nor Raonic has dropped a set.
Nadal, who is bidding to win his fourth title in the Californian Tournament after 2007, 2009 and 2013, has never lost at the quarter final stage here. Raonic has reached the quarter final stage in eight of his last Master 1000 Tournaments.
It’s the 23rd time that all the Big 4 (Djokovic, Federer, Nadal and Murray) have reached the quarter final stage in the same tournament.It’s the third time they have got through to the quarter final at Indian Wells.
Jack Sock crowned his successful tournament by reaching the semifinal stage in the doubles after winning with his teammate Vasek Pospisil against US twins Bob and Mike Bryan. They will take on the Serbian duo formed by Nenad Zimonijc and marcin Matkowski. The winners of this semifinal will face this year’s Australian Open champion Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli.
