Murray marches into semis with Federer in his sights

Three months ago Andy Murray was a rising talent who had yet to go beyond the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament, had not played in a Masters Series final and had never made the elite field for the Tennis Masters Cup. Yesterday the 21-year-old Scot followed his recent achievements of reaching the US Open final and winning two Masters Series titles by earning a place in the semi-finals of the Masters Cup on his debut at the season-ending showpiece.

Murray, who is now the favourite to win the tournament, built on his opening round-robin success against Andy Roddick with an emphatic 6-4, 6-2 victory over Gilles Simon. In his final group match tomorrow Murray faces Roger Federer, who kept alive his own hopes of making the semi-finals with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Radek Stepanek, a late replacement for the injured Roddick.

"To beat a couple of top 10 players back to back is great," Murray said. "The Masters Cup is obviously a huge, huge competition for all the top players and now I've got a chance of winning it."

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While Murray has already booked his place in the last four, there is still much to play for tomorrow. If he beats Federer, Murray will finish top of his four-man group, meaning that he will next meet the winner of today's match between Nikolay Davydenko and Juan Martin del Potro. If Murray loses, Federer would win the group and the Scot, as runner-up, would face a potentially tougher semi-final against Novak Djokovic, who has already won the other section.

Victory for Murray would also knock out Federer, who might otherwise have met the world No 4 again in the final. If Murray wins, Simon will join the Scot in the semi-finals irrespective of his result against Stepanek thanks to his victory over Federer in his first round-robin match.

"I've beaten Federer three times and I'd like to make it four," Murray said. "I'd like to knock him out of the competition if I can. I'd rather not have to play him twice in one week. He's the best player ever. Obviously there's a lot more pressure on him to win than me. It will be the first time I've played him when I've not been under pressure."

Simon is one of the game's most improved players, but this was his third defeat in a row against Murray, who rarely looked in trouble yesterday. The 23-year-old world No 9's game is not unlike Murray's, but he could not match the Scot's consistency or invention. Murray's clever variations of pace and ability to retrieve almost everything Simon could throw at him lured the Frenchman into a succession of errors.

The only period when Murray looked in any sort of difficulty came midway through the first set. Having won the first four games and missed a routine smash to go 5-1 up, Murray lost two games in a row and had to save two break points when serving at 4-3. Simon had three more break points when leading 1-0 in the second set, but Murray again held on and quickly took a stranglehold on the match by winning five games in a row.

"In the second set I dictated a lot of the points, moved him around a lot and didn't make too many errors," Murray said. "The more I got him moving and the more I changed the pace of the ball, the more mistakes he started to make."

He added: "I feel much better than I did after my first match. Coming over this way, it takes me a long time to get over the jetlag. I struggled with it when I came to the Olympics. I struggled in my first match here. My legs felt really, really heavy. Maybe I just need more time when I come over here, but today I felt perfect. I felt like I could have gone three or four hours if I'd had to."

Federer, who won the Masters Cup here last year despite losing his first match, came into the tournament nursing a back injury and spent Tuesday in his hotel room with an upset stomach. Once again the Swiss made more unforced errors (34) than winners (29), but Stepanek was hardly in shape to take advantage after stepping in as a late replacement for Roddick, who had injured his ankle in practice the previous day.

Stepanek came here direct from a holiday in Thailand and played with rackets borrowed from Djokovic, socks from Murray and contact lenses bought locally after his bags were held up in customs.

The world No 27 recovered from an early break to take the first set into a tie-break and rallied briefly at the end of the second. Stepanek broke Federer to love when the Swiss served for the match at 5-3, only to drop his own serve in the following game thanks to a missed volley and a double fault.

"At the end of the day I still have a chance," Federer said afterwards. "I hope with a day of recovery I'll make a miracle happen here and get through to the semis."

When told that Murray had said he wanted to knock him out of the tournament, Federer remained unmoved. "He would be stupid saying anything different," he said. "I'm looking forward to the match. It should be interesting. He's a wonderful player and he's had a great end to the season."