Filed under: Tennis
Andy Murray recovered from a disastrous first set to beat Florian Mayer and reach the last four of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome.The Scot will now face the toughest challenge in world tennis, however, with Novak Djokovic, the Serb who has won every match he has played in 2011, waiting in the semis after thrashing Robin Soderling 6-3 6-0 in Friday's night match.
Rafael Nadal will retain top spot in the world rankings heading into the French Open after defeating Marin Cilic 6-1 6-3. He will now meet Richard Gasquet, who beat Tomas Berdych 4-6 6-2 6-4.
Murray will know he cannot start Saturday's clash the way he did in this one, although he triumphed 1-6 6-1 6-1 in the end, with the German, ranked No. 28 in the world, unable to cash in on his early superiority.
Indeed, Murray looked to be showing signs of fatigue from Thursday evening's win over Potito Starace as Mayer burst out of the blocks and broke in the very first game of the match when Murray could only find the net with an attempted pass.
It did not take long for the Scot's infamous sulking to start as his frustration with himself grew but he forced a break point in game four only for the German to serve his way out of trouble.
The hold ensured the momentum remained with Mayer and he reeled off the next three games - breaking the Murray serve on a further two occasions - to wrap up the first set and leave Murray with a mountain to climb.
But climb it he did in a second set which was as impressive as the first set had been disappointing from the Brit.
There was certainly a sense that Murray, playing the German for the first time, had needed the first set to work out his unorthodox opponent's style and read his game and the comeback confirmed that theory.
There was still an early scare as Murray, having broken serve in the first game of the second set, then saw an excellent Mayer backhand win the game to draw level at 1-1 - meaning Murray had held serve just once to this point.
Having broken serve to take a 2-1 lead, Murray was then under severe pressure at 0-30 but the Scotsman recovered well to win the game and, 3-1 to the good, the momentum was completely with him.
And so it remained as Murray wrapped up set number two by the same margin he had lost the first and continued to torment his overwhelmed opponent, who able to win just one more game.
Murray therefore becomes the first Briton to reach a Rome semi-final.
REACTION:
On being the first Briton to reach the semi-finals at this event since George Hughes in 1931 - who went on to win it.
"When we walk to the practice court they have a list of all of the winners down the wall, and there is a lot of great players. It is nice and I want to try and go further."
On his erratic clay court form.
"If I want to get to number one in the world, then you need to play well on all of the surfaces. Roger [Federer], Rafa [Nadal] and Novak - they all play well on all the courts. I need to improve my game on the surface - and it's been better this year."
WHAT IT MEANS: That Murray has done better than any Briton in living memory (almost) in this particular tournament. And that he will get no further, in all probability.
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