Andy Murray beat fellow Brit Kyle Edmund 7-6(9) 6-2 to advance to the semi finals at the China Open.
The three time grand slam champion toughed out a tight opening set against his compatriot as Murray grabbed the opening tiebreak 11-9, after saving set point. Next generation star Edmund did give the Scotsman a scare in the second set after going up a break for a 2-0 lead. Nevertheless, Murray played some inspiring tennis and reeled off 6 games in a row to clinch victory inside the 1 hour and 50 minute mark. The win takes the world number two to his 10th semi final of the season.
Following his straight sets triumph in Beijing, Murray was full of praise when talking about his younger compatriot.
“He made it very tough for me. He’s improving at a solid pace now. His ranking is moving in the right direction.” Murray said.
The world number two will now play fifth seed and veteran David Ferrer after he beat an in form Alexander Zverev 6-7(4) 6-1 7-5. There were an incredible 12 breaks of serve in the match as the Spaniard completed victory in just over 2 hours and 20 minutes on the Lotus Court. Zverev relinquished his double break lead at the start of the opening set and from that point onwards he failed to regain momentum. Ferrer and Murray will meet on Saturday for the 22nd time, with the Scot winning 13 of the 21 previous meetings.
The other semi final will see Milos Raonic play Grigor Dimitrov after both men overcame difficult circumstances to reach the semifinals. Raonic had to win two matches in a day to advance to the last four. At the start of the day Raonic won 90% of first serve points as he cruised past Malek Jaziri 6-3 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals.
As a result, later on in the day Raonic would play Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, who also completed a 5-7 6-4 6-1 win over Richard Gasquet earlier in the day. Despite the tricky circumstances Raonic broke three times as he completed a 6-4 6-4 victory on Lotus Court.
The world number six will now play Grigor Dimitrov as the Bulgarian stunned 2005 champion Rafael Nadal 6-4 6-2. Nadal didn’t look comfortable on serve as he was broken five times and eventually surrendered the match to the former grand slam semi finalist. Dimitrov broke a psychological obstacle today as this is the first time he had beaten the Spaniard.
“I’m pretty happy with that win. I’m not going to lie. I’ve played Rafa quite a few times. So many times I was close or a couple times I was cramping. There was just always something happening,” said Dimitrov. “Today, I just played an excellent match. Simple as that. There’s not much else to say except that I’m proud. A lot of the work is paying off.”
Going into tomorrow’s match, Dimitrov leads the head-to-head 2-1 against Raonic.
