2010 Barclays ATP World Tour Final: Andy Murray second to qualify for the semis
Local favourite Andy Murray qualified for the semis at the World Tour Finals during his match against David Ferrer on Thursday, today at the O2 Arena, London.
Murray enjoys a win-loss mark of 1-1 in the event. He triumphed over Robin Soderling on Sunday by straight sets. The local, however, lost his form in his second round-robin match against Swiss Roger Federer.
Murray has qualified for the season finale for the third straight year. On his debut in 2008, he made it to the semis after defeating American Andy Roddick, French Gilles Simon and the Swiss maestro Federer. However, he lost to
Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the semis. The following year, Murray failed to make it to the semis despite his wins against Juan Martin del Potro and Fernando Verdasco. This is Murray’s second qualification to the semis.
Murray’s qualification for the semis follows that of Federer earlier in the day. Federer moved into the pole position to qualify after defeating Ferrer on Sunday and then Murray on Tuesday. Federer sailed into the semis after winning
the first set against Soderling earlier today. Following Federer’s win, Soderling was eliminated from the running leaving only Murray and Ferrer as the contenders.
Although Ferrer still had a chance of making it to the semis, it was very bleak when compared with Murray. Murray only had to defeat Ferrer or win 6 games to move into the semis. To qualify for the semis, Ferrer not only had to
defeat Murray in two sets, but he had to do it with a loss of no more than five games.
Murray’s qualification for the season finale this year was announced after he moved into the third round of the Shanghai Masters. He later went on to win the title after defeating Federer in the final. Murray had earlier won another
Masters title at Toronto and that too against Federer. With two titles and a final appearance at the Australian Grand Slam, Murray enjoyed the fourth position in the South African Airways ATP ranking. However, he was, recently displaced to fifth position by
Soderling after the latter won at the Paris Masters two weeks ago.
Qualifying in the second position of Group B, Murray will face the first position of Group A later in the event. Group A includes Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Tomas Berdych and Andy Roddick. With no qualification from Group A
yet, it is difficult to say for sure whom Murray will be playing although the semi final qualification scenarios have been made based on predicted results of Friday’s matches.
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