Andy Murray closes in on elusive title win

ANDY Murray moved a step closer to his first title in more than a year with a 6-3, 7-5 defeat of Slovakian Lukas Lacko to reach the semi-finals of the Shenzen Open yesterday.

Job done for Andy Murray. Picture: Getty

The Scot, trophy-less since winning Wimbledon last year, eased past the world No 85 in just 79 minutes to set up a clash with Argentina’s Juan Monaco, who earlier ousted French third seed Richard Gasquet 7-6(7), 6-4.

Murray is facing a battle to qualify for the year-ending ATP World Tour Finals and needs a healthy haul of points from his remaining events this year 
to make the eight-man London finale.

His cause was boosted earlier in the week when Spain’s David Ferrer, one of the players he is vying with for one of the five remaining slots, crashed out early.

Murray, ranked 11th in the ATP world rankings and also in the Race standings, took a wildcard to compete in Shenzen and it could prove a fruitful decision seeing as he is now clear favourite to land the indoor title.

Should he win the title he would move to tenth in the standings but would still need to overhaul the likes of Canadian Milos Raonic and Czech Tomas Berdych, as well as Ferrer, to make sure of appearing at the year-ender. Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal have already booked their London tickets, with Australian Open winner Stanislas Wawrinka, US Open winner Marin Cilic and Japan’s Kei Nishikori well on the way to joining them, leaving a fight for the two final places.

The other semi-final in Shenzen will be between Spain’s Tommy Robredo, who beat Italian Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3, and Colombian Santiago Giraldo who beat Serbia’s Viktor Troicki in straight sets.

In the women’s game, meanwhile, Petra Kvitova moved closer to booking her place in the WTA Tour Finals after reaching the final of the Wuhan Open in China.

The Wimbledon champion defeated Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 6-3, 7-5 and now stands one more win away from a guaranteed berth in the lucrative end-of-season showpiece.

Kvitova will face a repeat of her Wimbledon final against Eugenie Bouchard after the Canadian saw off Caroline Wozniacki in the second semi-final, winning 6-2, 6-3.