Cincinnati – SF
Perhaps Mardy Fish made a mistake that accepted conditions of Andy Murray in the first semifinal, so a variety of rotations in cautious baseline rallies. The match was
played during a very hot weather, it could influence on a lack of dynamism of the usually offensive American, who had problems with shoelaces throughout the match. There were six breaks of serve in the weird 2nd set, Fish broke back three times immediately and held a double set point at 6:5* (40-15) – Murray saved the danger with good serves, he did the same with the third set point at 6:7 in the tie-break. Fish managed to fight off two match points (the second one with a very close “challenge”) but the more patient Murray kept the ball patientlly in play to get two crucial unforced errors from Fish in the end. The Brit winning 6-3, 7-6 #, avenged three defeats to Fish from the previous season, the third of them occurred on the same court in Cincinnati at the quarter-final stage.
The second semifinal totally disappointed and surprised. Tomas Berdych led 5:3* (30-15) in the 1st set against Novak Djokovic, who seemed to accept the loss of the set, however, he won four straight games with a bunch of Berdych’s errors and the Czech suddenly retired, he did it also in their previous encounter – semifinal in Dubai this year. “In the beginning, [the injury] just started like if I had to stretch, especially for the backhand side and some air balls,” explained Berdych his right shoulder injury, “But since the match was going on, then especially it started more on the serve, which is for me the worst“.
# Murray’s 300th win, this week also 8 years older Radek Stepanek clinched 300th win
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