Sport

Murray in semifinals; Roddick pulls out

SHANGHAI: Britain’s Andy Murray defeated Gilles Simon in straight sets to reach the Masters Cup semifinals on Wednesday as Andy Roddick joined Rafael Nadal on the injury list.

Murray overcame some dogged resistance to win the first set and ran away with the second to take it 6-4, 6-2 and follow third-ranked Novak Djokovic into the last four.

Murray beat Simon in Hamburg and in the Madrid Masters final this year, both in straight sets, and victory looked assured as he raced to a 4-0 lead in the first set.

But his charge was suddenly slowed by Simon, who stunned top seed Roger Federer in his opening match. The Scot was broken at 4-1 and he faced more break points before serving out the set 6-4.

Murray was again in trouble early in the second but he saved three break points and then broke twice for a straight-set win.

In another match, Roger Federer laboured to an unconvincing 7-6(4), 6-4 win over Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek to keep his Masters Cup defence alive.

The top seed, who is recovering from a back injury and was shocked by Gilles Simon in his first match, put in another erratic performance against the World No. 27, who replaced the injured Andy Roddick.

Federer started strongly as Stepanek double-faulted to be broken in the first game. But the Czech hit back before Federer took control of the tie-break, rounding it off with an unreachable forehand drop.

Federer looked to have it won when he broke for 5-3, but Stepanek swiped an unstoppable backhand pass on the slide to break back. However, the recovery was brief as he double-faulted for the match in the next game.

The two-time defending champion from Switzerland is trying to become only the third man with five or more year-end titles after Ivan Lendl and Pete Sampras. Lendl completed the last hat-trick in 1987.

He extends his career head-to-head to 7-2 against Stepanek, who beat the then No. 1 at the Rome Masters in May.

Meanwhile, World No. 6 Roddick, who rolled his right ankle on Tuesday, became the second injury withdrawal after top-ranked Rafael Nadal pulled out with tendinitis.

“I came out here and tried to warm up 45 minutes or so ago, and it was pretty apparent that my movement was probably 30 or 40 per cent,” Roddick told reporters. “Unfortunately that’s just not good enough to get it done at a tournament like this. I didn’t feel like I could go out and try to compete and win a tennis match.”

Roddick also pulled out injured in 2005, when Nadal, Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt and Marat Safin also missed the tournament, angering Chinese organisers. The eight-man season finale is played in a round-robin format with the top two players from Red and Gold Group reaching the last four.

Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy’s chance of reaching the doubles semifinals of Tennis Masters Cup went up in smoke after they succumbed to their second successive defeat.

The sixth-seeded Indo-Czech pair lost their Gold group league match 6-7(2), 3-6 to Polish duo Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski.

Only the top two teams of Red and Gold groups will make the semifinal stage.

Paes and Dlouhy had plenty of chances in the first set but squandered all three breakpoints and eventually handed the lead to their opponents after losing the tie-break.

In the second, they dropped serve thrice and that was enough for the players from Poland to win the match.

The results: Red Group: Singles: Andy Murray bt Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-2; Roger Federer bt Radek Stepanek 7-6(4), 6-4.

Gold Group: Doubles: Daniel Nestor & Nenad Zimonjic bt Jonas Bjorkman & Kevin Ullyett 6-1, 6-4; Mariusz Fyrstenberg & Marcin Matkowski bt Lukas Dlouhy & Leander Paes 7-6(2), 6-3. — Agencies

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu