Top seed Andy Murray advanced to the China Open with a 6-2 6-3 win over David Ferrer.
Despite losing their last six meetings, Ferrer was determined to change his recent losing streak against the world number two and started the liveliest by breaking the Murray serve in the third game, to grab the early break. However the Spaniard couldn’t hold on to his early momentum as Murray used his powerful ground strokes to reel off five games in a row to take the opening set 6-2.
The three time grand slam champion continued his early pressure as he broke again to take a 3-1 lead. Although Ferrer broke back straight away it was the last effort from him as he would be broken again and Murray eventually completed the match in 1 hour and 30 minutes to advance to his first China Open final. As a result of his win, he is the first Brit since Greg Rusedski in 1996 to reach the China Open final.
Murray explained after the match that he is very happy with his performance this week and hopes to end the season strong, “I felt like if I could find a way to get through the first couple of matches, I’d start to feel better and play better here, Thankfully that’s been the case so far this week. I will try and play another high-level match again tomorrow. But it’s very positive leading into Shanghai, and hopefully I can finish the year strong.”
The Scot will now play Grigor Dimitrov in the final after his opponent Milos Raonic withdrew from their semifinal due to an ankle injury, which he sustained in his quarterfinal match against Pablo Carreno Busta. Raonic explained, “Yesterday during my second match in the evening, I rolled over my ankle, obviously caused it some level of a sprain.” The Canadian will now be a doubt for next week’s Shanghai Rolex Masters event.
However Dimitrov now advances to his third final of 2016, and has shown some good form to get to tomorrow’s final. Murray and Dimitrov have played ten times before, with Murray winning the head to head 7-3.
In other news, Rafael Nadal made the doubles final on Saturday with compatriot Pablo Carreno Busta as they beat four time champions the Bryan brothers 7-5 6-4. The first time pairing will now play defending champion Jack Sock and Bernard Tomic in the final, after they beat second seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo by the same scoreline.
