Andy Murray into Shanghai Masters final
Andy Murray reached the Shanghai Masters after beating Juan Monaco 6-4, 6-1.
It is the second ATP World Tour Masters final of the season for the British No.1 thanks to his 40th match win of the campaign.
The first set looked to be heading to Monaco as he broke Murray’s serve at 5-3. At 15-0 during the game, Murray’s string broke on his racket and he had to play defensive shots.
Monaco, playing in his first Masters semi-final, hit a smash shot wide and the momentum switched to Murray, who went on to get the break back and take the first set.
Monaco seemed to have been affected from that game as he could only take one game from the second set, with Murray only dropping two points on his serve and storming to the win and a place in the final.
“I chased a lot of balls down. He made a few mistakes. Points like that can sort of change matches a little bit, but I was still feeling quite comfortable even at that stage,” said Murray.
“This is a surface for me that is very good. The ball bounces relatively high. I feel like I move well on these courts and I can still get my serve through the court to get enough free points. It had been a couple of tough weeks, last week in Beijing [losing to Ivan Ljubicic in the quarter-finals]. Sort of getting ready for Beijing was tricky. It's probably a better result than I expected at the start of the week,” he added.
“The start was very good and the end was very good, in the middle I started missing a few balls and didn't make many first serves so I was on the back foot in the rallies.
“I just had to scramble through and then that one point where I held on with the broken string turned things around. I feel like I'm moving well. Endurance-wise I feel like I could do with getting better, I haven't played a lot of long matches this week which is nice but I'm moving around the court well,” said Murray.
Murray will now play Roger Federer in tomorrow’s final after he beat Novak Djokovic in straight sets.
In a repeat of their US Open semi-final showdown, where Djokovic beat Federer in a five-set thriller, Federer showed his class to dispatch the Serb 7-5, 6-4.
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