Andy Murray conquers service

Published on Friday 30 July 2010 18:58

Top seed Andy Murray battled against his serve as well as Alejandro Falla, but claimed a 7-6 6-1 win to reach the semi-finals of the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles.

Murray's first-serve percentage was just 42 per cent for the match and an incredible 38 per cent for the second set, but he met an opponent who struggled as much as he did. And after battling through a tough opening set, the second, despite his service struggles, was far simpler as Murray, without a coach after he split with Miles Maclagan this week, sealed a last-four clash with Feliciano Lopez.

The first set went with serve until Murray made the most of the first break-point opportunity of the match to go 3-2 up, but he could not consolidate as Falla levelled immediately at 3-3. Murray created two break points in game seven but could not convert, then Falla did likewise before Murray battled back to hold for 4-4.

Murray led 40-15 as he served to stay in the set in game ten, but Falla won three points in a row to create a break point before the Scot eventually held. Falla again knocked on the door in game 12, but Murray took the set into a tie-break.

The Scot was cruising as he won the first three points, but Falla fought back to 3-3. Finally Murray stamped his authority on the match, though, winning four points in a row to take the set.

The pair exchanged breaks at the start of the second set, but from there on in it was all Murray. He won five games in a row to end Falla's resistance as the Colombian failed to take advantage of Murray's below-par delivery.

Murray revealed he felt better after his win over Falla than in the previous round. He said: "I feel much better than I did yesterday. I had the same sort of thing earlier in this year after the Australian Open when I didn't play for a few weeks," he added.

"Then I played in Dubai, I was really sore after the first match, and then each match after that I started to feel a lot better. Hopefully that'll be the case here."

Meanwhile, Sam Querrey overcame an erratic serving display to reach the semi-finals with a nail-biting 6-2 3-6 7-6 victory over German veteran Rainer Schuettler on Friday.The giant American smashed two rackets in frustration and trailed 4-5 in the deciding set but twice broke the German as his opponent served for the match before clinching the tiebreak 7-4.

Querrey, who beat Australian Carsten Ball in last year's final, will meet sixth seed Janko Tipsarevic in the last four, the Serb having upset third-seeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 6-3 7-5.

In the other quarter-final, Spanish left-hander Lopez, the fourth seed, came from a set down to beat American wildcard James Blake 3-6 7-6 6-4 to earn his encounter with Murray.