Murray eases into Verdasco showdown in Dubai
AFP
AFP, DUBAI: World number one Andy Murray showed no signs of weariness to ease into the Dubai Tennis Championships final where he will be chasing his 45th career title.
The top seed defeated seventh-seeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille 7-5, 6-1 and will face veteran Spaniard Fernando Verdasco who broke three times in the deciding set to defeat Robin Haase 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 6-1 in the other semi-final.
Verdasco, 33 and ranked 35th, has managed just one win from 13 meetings with Murray, who will be playing his second final of the season after losing to Novak Djokovic in Doha at the start of January.
It was tough, it wasnt the best match, Murray said. A lot of mistakes. But there was some good stuff in there, neither of us served well at the beginning.
I think potentially the match yesterday had something to do with that - sometimes if your legs are a little bit tired, the serve is one of the first things that goes.
As the match went on, I started serving a bit better and that helped me. The first set was very important to win after how the matches went yesterday.
For Murray, a leisurely first set took 67 minutes to complete on Friday, with Pouille coming from a break down but losing serve for 4-4 on a double-fault.
Murray broke in the final game to secure the match lead. The Scot then shifted up a gear, and ran out the winner with a 27-minute second set.
