Ferrer, Murray reach Austrian Open final

VIENNA: Andy Murray and David Ferrer tightened the duel for spots in the ATP year-end final with a pair of wins into the semi-finals of the Austrian Open on Friday.

Murray, seeded second and the heavy crowd favourite in his debut at Vienna´s Stadthalle, played it safe against German Jan-Lennard Struff in a 6-2, 7-5 win.

Spain´s top seed Ferrer limited the damage from the lethal serve of Ivo Karlovic as he defeated the sixth-seeded Croatian 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, holding Karlovic to 17 aces.

Ferrer won the first set in 44 minutes from two unforced Karlovic errors and secured a break in the seocnd set for what proved to be a winning margin. He has now won three of four matches in the series,

Ferrer stands provisional ninth in the race for one of three remaining places at the World Tour Finals, one spot ahead of Murray.

Murray will Saturday face Viktor Troicki, who took a big step in his return from tennis exile as he beat Thomaz Bellucci 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (2/7), 6-2 to reach his first semi-final since 2011.

Ferrer will take on fourth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, a winner over Benjamin Becker 6-4, 7-6 (7/3).

Murray´s only wobble against the 52nd-ranked Struff came as the Scot trailed 3-1 in the second set, but Murray quickly put that right and returned to 3-all.

The former Wimbledon champion ran out the winner after less than 90 minutes with a love game. "I expected a tough match from him, even if I didn´t know a lot about his game," said Murray, provisional tenth in the race to London which will be decided this weekend and over the remaining two weeks of the ATP season. "He was hitting big. I had to play well to win and fight to get through. My game was more consistent than in the previous round, I was able to change up the rhythm. He was playing high-risk tennis but he made a couple of mistakes which helped me. I still was not able to hit a lot of winners." (AFP)