Murray to Square Off With Federer in Shanghai Masters Semis
Top-seeded Roger Federer will face the number three-seeded and two-time defending champion Andy Murray in the semifinals of the 2012 Shanghai Rolex Masters. Murray leads 9-8 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. Federer hit 27 winners and eight aces past 10th-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia in his quarterfinal match for a 6-3, 6-4 victory in 82 minutes. Cilic, who dropped to 0-4 against Federer, won 54 per cent of first serve points won and committed 29 unforced errors.
"I’m looking forward to the match," said Federer. "It’s always great playing the best players. Those are the kind of matches you want to try to win because that can obviously then move the rankings by a little bit, even though it doesn’t matter so much if you stay within the top four. It’s going to be a tough match, [a] good one. From my side, I haven’t decided yet how I’m going to play."
Murray is shooting for his third consecutive title in Shanghai, and in the quarterfinals, defeated Radek Stepanek 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in two hours and 19 minutes. Stepanek lost just five of his service points to win the first set. Murray bounced back, although he wasn’t striking the ball cleanly at times, to improve to 5-1 overall against his Czech opponent.
“It was quite a scrappy first couple of sets, but obviously the second set I managed to get a break, got a bit of momentum,” said Murray. “[I] started going for my shots and dictated a majority of those at the end of the match. Obviously I needed to, because he was playing with a lot of variety, making it hard for me. I was a little bit tentative on some shots. [I] allowed him to come forward.”
Murray is now 52-12 on the year, which includes three titles at the Brisbane International, the London Olympics and U.S. Open.
