Mighty Murray turns up the heat
Roddick next for Scot as he swats the Mosquito on his surge into Wimbledon semi-finals
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If Andy Murray’s Wimbledon quest reached dangerous waters under the roof, under the blue skies it was plain sailing for the British number one as he romped into the last four yesterday.
Normal service has been resumed at Wimbledon. The roof was redundant, the skies were blue and Scot Murray’s thumping victory over Juan Carlos Ferrero was red hot.
Ferrero wilted in the blistering heat on Centre Court but Murray’s fires were stoked and he is now just two victories away from being the first male Briton since 1936 to hoist the Wimbledon crown aloft.
Far from the four-hour drama on Monday, Murray spent just 1hr 43min on court for his 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 victory, just 60 seconds longer than Roger Federer spent in his last-eight victory over Ivo Karlovic earlier in the day.
Murray’s semi-final opponent will be American Andy Roddick, who came through a thrilling match with Australian Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4.
The writing has been on the wall for some time but surely Murray and Federer have a final date with destiny on Sunday afternoon.
“It’s a great feeling and, obviously, I’m happy to win in straight sets after what happened on Monday,” said Murray, who becomes the first Briton since Tim Henman in 2002 to reach the last four.
“It’s great for me to get to the semi-finals. I don’t think it brings any added pressure because I’ve been to this stage before at the US Open last year.
“It was a pretty different match. It took me a while to get used to the conditions again but I thought I played well in the second and third sets. I’ve got to keep going because it doesn’t matter how well I’ve played up until now. I understand that I could lose the next match if I don’t play at my best.”
It was Murray making all the running against Ferrero. Murray accelerated through the gears in the second set and the former world number one, dubbed the Mosquito, was swatted out of his way.
A sluggish start from Murray ensured a sub-standard first set but the Scot has more fighting spirit than Ferrero and he ground out a one-set lead as the crucial break was handed to him with a double fault.
Murray was seemingly not needing to get out of second gear but an early break in the second set from Ferrero – the French Open champion in 2003 – dispelled that myth with an early break.
With the scores at deuce in the fifth game of the set, and Ferrero 3-1 up, Murray went into overdrive – the rest was history.
The third set was a mere formality, wrapped up by Murray 6-2 with consummate ease as he booked a semi-final match with former world number one and twice finalist Roddick.
“If I’m not at my best then I’m going to lose against Roddick. He is a former world number one and grand slam winner,” added Murray.
“I’d hope I have an extra gear if I needed one – we’ll have to wait and see.”
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