Andy Murray booked his place into the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships final after a 7-5 6-1 win over Lucas Pouille.
In their three previous meeting Murray had only lost a total of ten games to his French opponent, and it looked like this match was going to be as dominant as the Brit raced out to a 3-0 lead early on. However the world number 15 won 50% of first serve return points and went on to win the next four games to lead by a break at 4-3. Despite the momentum shift the world number one knew he had to press the Pouille serve, this showed in the next game when on his third break point he converted to break back for 4-4. The Frenchman only served 42% of first serves in, which was a dangerous game to play especially with the quality of opposition. This proved costly in the twelfth game, when Murray won a mammoth game to seal this up and down set 7-5. Could the Frenchman recover, in what was his best performance against the Brit?
The answer was no as Pouille didn’t have enough energy to overcome a sensational Andy Murray. The world number one would win the first five games of the second set to storm into a 5-0 lead. Murray would win the second set 6-1 to seal victory in 1 hour and 34 minutes. Pouille did well to remain as competitive as he did but he couldn’t stop a Murray masterclass.
Andy Murray will now play Fernando Verdasco in the Dubai final.
Prediction: Andy Murray in three sets.
