Andy Murray edges past David Nalbandian into semi-final – Tokyo Open 2011
Second seeded British Andy Murray dumped David Nalbandian of Argentina in straight sets at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2011, an ATP World Tour 500 series event taking place from October 1st to October
9th at Koto, Tokyo, Japan. He earned a 6-4, 7-5 victory over the 29-year-old Argentinean to book a semi-final spot on Friday.
Duelling each other for the sixth time, Murray went into overdrive mode to pull out an easy straight setter victory to not only extend lead in the head-to-head series by 4-2 against the Argentinean but also advanced into the last
four of this hard court event.
Fresh off from a title at Bangkok, the Scot re-ignited the same spark on these Japanese hard courts and kept his opening serve in the second game with classy shots. He then bagged in remaining serves through exquisite forehands
and got the coveted break in the fifth game to clinch the opener with a 6-4 win.
World number four Murray maintained his composure in the second set to keep his opening serve in the second game. Later he held remaining serves until he broke Nalbandian’s serve in the seventh game to put his nose ahead for the
first time. Despite losing his serve in the very next game and exchanging another break after it, the British lad converted another breakpoint chance to his advantage in the eleventh game to subsequently pocket the set with a 7-5 score line.
Summing up the British super star’s performance: Murray clobbered a lower first serve share of 55 percent as compared to Argentinean’s 68 percent but registered a superb 85 percent win on it. Furthermore, he saved one out of three
breakpoints faced but cashed in on half of the eight breakpoint opportunities to his advantage. The seed then put a cherry on the match by smacking nine ferocious aces and comfortably pluck in the match.
"I played well," said the delighted Murray. "I served very well for the most part. He is one of the best returners in the game, so I didn't give him too many opportunities. At the end he started to come at me a little bit and I
made a few mistakes and I got a little bit tentative. I served for the match a couple of times and let it slip, but I broke back immediately. So I was pleased with that."
Next up for the Scot is the third seed, Spaniard David Ferrer, who fended off late fought back by the seventh seeded Czech Radek Stepanek and registered a 6-2, 7-6(3) success. Murray has won on all three meetings on the hard courts
against the Spaniard and will march in the court in full confidence.
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