Murray gets past Federer to progress to final

Andy Murray fought back from a set down to defeat world number two Roger Federer and progress through to the final of the Madrid Masters.

Murray also gained revenge for his defeat to Federer in last month’s US Open final with today’s 3-6 6-3 7-5 victory in the Spanish capital, and he will next face either world number one Rafael Nadal and or Gilles Simon in tomorrow’s final.

World number four Murray lost 6-2 7-5 6-2 to Federer at Flushing Meadows in what was the Scot’s first-ever Grand Slam final, and he had to do it the hard way today to avoid another defeat to the 27-year-old after losing the first set.

The first breakthrough of the match came in the sixth game when Murray, having already saved one break point at 30-40, overhit a forehand to leave Federer holding a 4-2 advantage.

Federer, who this week overtook Pete Sampras as the record prize winner in men’s tennis history, did not let that advantage slip as Murray dropped his first set this week.

Having won two of his four career meetings with Federer previously though, the 21-year-old Murray knew that the situation was salvageable.

And so it proved as the fourth seed broke Federer in the fourth game of the second set to level the match up and keep alive his hopes of winning a fourth ATP title of the year.

In the final set the impressive Murray looked to hold the upper hand throughout and had Federer regularly in all sorts of trouble on his own serve.

However, the world number four had to wait until the 11th game of the set to finally make it count as, after failing to make the most of six break points previously in the set, it was lucky number seven to take a 5-4 lead.

Murray then held his serve to take the victory following an enthralling match of just under two hours.