Murray sweeps aside Dimitrov to reach Thailand semis

Andy Murray continued his run of good form at the Thailand Open in Bangkok, easing into the last four at the expense of Grigor Dimitrov.

Murray’s 6-4, 6-4 victory in one hour and 28 minutes means the Scot remains on course to take his third title of the season. Murray will face France’s Gilles Simon in the semi-final, who fought back to beat Germany’s Matthias Bachinger 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

The early stages of the first set went with serve, although Murray had to save three break points in order to avoid an early setback.

Dimitrov was made to pay as Murray, in the ninth game, exerted his influence to break the Bulgarian’s serve. The Scot then served it out to win the first set.

The second set followed a similar pattern. It was the ninth game once more in which Murray made the breakthrough and, again, he served out to win the match and a place in the semi-final.

Murray was pleased with his service game – and set himself a target of moving up the world rankings by the end of 2011.

“I served well again,” said world No 4 Murray. “He started the match pretty well and once I served a couple of break points in my second service game, the momentum was then with me for a lot of the match.

“I did not give him too many opportunities on my serve. Returning is normally one of the strongest parts of my game, so when I served well I tended to put pressure on him and he missed a few shots at the end of both sets.”

Murray added: “By playing the full Asian stretch, there is a chance for me to try and move my ranking up by one spot, which is something I want to do by the end of the year.”

Meanwhile, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova have withdrawn from the China Open women’s event that starts today.

The men’s competition in Beijing also suffered a major setback earlier this week when world No 1 Novak Djokovic pulled out with a back injury.

World No 2 Sharapova twisted her ankle against Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the Pan-Pacific Open quarter-finals on Thursday and was forced to quit the Tokyo tournament.

“The good news is the MRI scan showed no big damage to my ankle,” the Russian said on her website.

Williams has pulled out of the Beijing event for the second year in a row. The American was due to arrive in the city yesterday but failed to show up.