Smashing show from Andy in China
WORLD No. 2 Andy Murray recovered from a slow start yesterday to surge into today’s final of the China Open with victory over Spain’s David Ferrer.
Murray was a break down in the opening set before hitting back to win the next five games in a row on his way to a 6- 2 6- 3 win in exactly 90 minutes in Beijing.
The 29- year- old will face Grigor Dimitrov in today’s final after recording his seventh consecutive victory over Ferrer, who ultimately lacked the firepower to upset the top seed.
Ferrer, who lost to Murray in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January, broke for a 2-1 lead in the first set but was immediately broken back to love.
Consecutive double faults then gave Murray three more break points in the sixth game and although Ferrer saved two, a backhand which drifted over the baseline gave Murray a 4-2 lead.
Another break of serve saw Murray take the opening set after 48 minutes and the double Olympic champion raced into a 3-1 lead in the second before surprisingly losing his serve.
However, that proved to be a momentary lapse in concentration and Murray immediately broke Ferrer’s serve once more before wrapping up an impressive win.
“I did well,” Murray said. “I was obviously 2-1 down with a break in the first set. Even the period in the second set where he came back a bit, when he broke me, there was a lot of long points. Really good tennis I thought.
“Thankfully I got the break at 3-2. That was a big game because he had some chances to win that game. I had a couple of break points and got the momentum back on my side straight away and finished it off pretty well.
“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’ll try to play another high- level match again tomorrow. Dimitrov has been playing a lot better the past few months. He had a very good win against Rafa Nadal yesterday. It will be a hard match.”
Dimitrov was given a walkover into the final when Milos Raonic was forced to withdraw due to an ankle injury sustained in his quarter- final win over Pablo Carreno Busta on Friday.
“I did a test this morning, which showed I had a partial tear on the outside of my ankle,” Raonic said.
“I was told to give it a try. I tried to warm up just before the match like I would normally, and I was unable to play.”