Murray and Ferrer Move Into Paris Semifinals
Andy Murray made his way into the Paris Masters semifinals on Friday, hanging on to beat Frenchman Richard Gasquet 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-3 to advance.
Murray got off to a great start, breaking Gasquet in the second game of the match and quickly building a 3-0 advantage. But Gasquet recovered to even things up, forcing the set into a tie-breaker.
The Frenchman would go on to lead 5-3 in the tie-breaker, but Murray came back, saving one set point on his way to the 9-7 victory to win the first set.
In the second set, Gasquet would secure the lone break point to take a 4-2 lead, and went on to serve out the rest of the set.
The key break point would come in the ninth game of the deciding third set, and that was all Murray needed to close out his fourth consecutive win against Gasquet.
“I feel like I have been striking the ball well this week,” said Murray. “I think the first two matches obviously were extremely good. I think at periods of today’s match, I also played extremely well.”
Both players converted on three of eight break point chances, but Murray’s comeback in the first set tie-breaker proved to be the difference.
In the semifinals, the Scot will take on Spaniard David Ferrer. The eighth-seeded Ferrer outlasted American John Isner 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-2 to advance.
Isner, who beat Roger Federer yesterday, had his serve pounced on by Ferrer, who broke early in the first set and didn’t let up from there.
Despite allowing a break advantage to slip away towards the end of the second set, he would break for a 2-1 lead in the third set and never looked back, closing out Isner in two hours and 26 minutes.
Ferrer set himself up with 15 break points on Isner’s serve, converting on five of them.
The other semifinal in Paris will be settled later today, as Tomas Berdych battles with Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal takes on Stan Wawrinka in quarterfinal action.
