Tennis: Murray reaches semis with 13th straight win

Ferrer knocks out Roddick at Shanghai Masters.

SHANGHAI: Andy Murray cruised into the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters, clinching his 13th straight victory as David Ferrer battled back from a set down to beat Andy Roddick.

Defending champion Murray, who strolled to a 6-3, 6-2 victory, looked in the groove early on against qualifier Matthew Ebden, putting pressure on the 124th-ranked Australian’s serve and forcing two breaks in the first set.

The Scottish second seed broke early in the second set and sealed the match with a second break. He will face Kei Nishikori, who looked in control in his 6-4, 6-3 win over Ukrainian 12th-seed Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Earlier, third seed Ferrer recovered from losing the first set to beat 10th-seed Roddick 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 7-6 (7/2).

After a first set that went with serve, Roddick drew first blood when he clinched the tie-break but the Spaniard hit back strongly in the second set to break the big-serving American twice.

Roddick was match point down in the 10th game of the third set but kept his nerve to level at 5-5 and force a tie-break. Ferrer secured two crucial mini-breaks and sealed the win after more than two-and-a-half hours.

Ferrer was not broken once by his American opponent throughout the match.

“I feel confident. This is very important because some moments I didn’t play really well. [But] in important moments I served really well,” said the Spaniard.

Spain’s Feliciano Lopez defeated 15th-seed Florian Mayer 6-2, 6-4 with the German unable to repeat the heroics that saw him oust top-seed Rafael Nadal.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2011.