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Murray overwhelms Monaco to reach Shanghai final
Resurgent fourth seed Andy Murray overwhelmed Argentine Juan Monaco 6-4 6-1 at the Shanghai Masters today to book a place in the final.
Resurgent fourth seed Andy Murray overwhelmed Argentine Juan Monaco 6-4 6-1 at the Shanghai Masters on Saturday to book a place in the final.
The Briton, seeking his second Masters' tournament title of the season after shaking off recent illness, bewildered the unseeded Monaco with his precision shots.
"I was feeling good. I played one bad game on my serve at the end of the first set. I just needed to focus. I chased a lot of balls down, " said Murray, who has yet drop a set in the tournament.
Several times, he drew Monaco to the net before launching booming backhands or lobs towards the exposed baseline, even breaking his racket strings after one return to foil the stunned Argentine.
Crowd-favourite Murray took one hour 25 minutes to see off his former training partner and will next meet either Serb Novak Djokovic or world number three Roger Federer who play in the other semi-final.
"I do really enjoy playing Roger and wouldn't mind playing him. It's a great experience every time," said Murray, who beat the world number three in August at the Toronto Masters.
"Novak is playing great. Last week (at the China Open) he didn't drop a set and hasn't dropped one this week. I'll need to play an unbelievable match to beat him," he added.
Monaco had endured a three-hour, three-set thriller to beat Austrian Juergen Melzer in the quarter-finals 24 hours earlier but said that exertion had played a minor factor against the Scot.
"What happened? On the other side of the net was Andy Murray, so it was difficult for me," said Monaco.
