Andy Murray eased into the semi-finals of the Shenzhen Open with a fairly comfortable 6-3 -7-5 win against Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko.
The 27-year-old British number one, who is battling to move up the world rankings from 11 to eighth in order to make the end-of-season ATP World Tour Finals at London’s O2 Arena, followed up Thursday’s win against Somdev Devvarman with a victory against Lacko which sets up a semi-final showdown against world number 97 Juan Monaco.
Murray took the first set courtesy of his solitary break point chance in Lacko’s opening service game, before breaking him in the 11th game of the second set to take the match in 79 minutes.
“I was a little bit frustrated at the start of the second set because I had chances to break and didn’t take them,” said Murray.
“It allowed him to get back into the match. He started playing better, was creating some chances. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, when I have chances to get myself ahead, I can do that a bit better.”
The Scot’s Argentine opponent in the last four impressively defeated third seed Richard Gasquet 7-6 (9-7) 6-4.
Murray though is installed as a strong 1.12 favourite to win the semi-final clash, while Monaco is 6.26 in the Set Handicap market.
Meanwhile Spain’s fourth seed Tommy Robredo defeated Andreas Seppi from Italy 6-4 6-7 (7-5) 6-3 and will face Santiago Giraldo for a place in Sunday’s final after the Colombian defeated Serbia’s Viktor Troicki 7-6 (8-6) 6-3.
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