Andy Murray does enough to beat Simon in heatwave

Andy Murray was not at his best but did enough to book a semi-final spot at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Gilles Simon.

In baking conditions, the world No 4 rarely looked like worsening his six-one record against Simon, but he struggled with his serve and his ground strokes at times before finding some consistency in the second set.

Murray had to encounter a handful of shaky moments in a match that was played at a slow, often mundane pace, but a gradual improvement in his first-serve percentages – he won 78 per cent of the points on it – saw him home in an hour and 35 minutes.

He will now meet the winner of Rafael Nadal and Mardy Fish in today’s semi-final.

After a delayed start because of a fire alarm, Murray appeared to have laid down an early marker when he broke serve in the opening game, eventually taking a fourth break point, only for Simon to instantly break back, showing his mettle to win a 37-shot rally.

The see-saw nature of the early exchanges looked like continuing into the third game as Murray earned himself two more break points, only to twice net before hitting wide and long to give Simon the game.

Murray steadied his ship with a hold in the fourth game and broke again in the fifth, coming in to punch home a forehand winner after a pedestrian rally that was no doubt as a result of the searing heat on court.

A less than convincing hold then allowed the Scot to put daylight between himself and Simon at 4-2, creating a cushion he was never to lose. Murray admitted afterwards that he had shown some early caution in order to get a foothold in the game.

“I have to play my game against him and it works very well,” he said. “I’ve seen many players try to blast him off. You have to wait for the right moments. I need to keep improving a few percent every day.”