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  • Murray through to the final in Marseille

    2/17/08 2:28 AM | David Cox
    - It was one-way traffic in the Palais du Sports this afternoon, Andy Murray booking his place in another ATP final (3rd in 5 tournaments) by demolishing Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 6-2 in just over an hour.

    Many thought it would be another drawn-out encounter like their match in Miami last spring but Mathieu was unable to match his opponent's intensity and missed too many balls, particularly in the second set

    Mathieu got out of the blocks very sluggishly, gifting Murray a break in the opening game with a couple of errors. The 4th seed needed no further invitation to take control, while Mathieu seemed incapable of anything other than 2nd gear. In particular, the tradmark Murray backhand was razor-sharp, punching holes in the Frenchman's defence time and time again. When in form, players took about being “in the zone” and that epitomises Murray's performance, he just wasn't missing anything - backhand returns were clipping the sidelines, defensive lobs landing inch-perfect on the baseline. He broke again to go 4-1 up, missed a couple of set points at 5-1 but clinched it in the next game.

    Mathieu's big weapon is the forehand, particularly when he runs around the backhand and smokes it down the line. However, Murray bossed so many of the points right from the off that the Frenchman had few chances to use his favourite shot. He tried coming to the net more in the second but this just played into the target-loving Scot's hands and he picked him off at will with topspin lobs. A blistering forehand on the run gave him the break for 2-1 in the 2nd and yet another ferocious return on breakpoint at 4-2 made the match all but over.

    Unsurprisingly, Murray felt it was one of his best performances since returning from injury in August. Speaking afterwards he said “I played really aggressively, hit a lot winners and didn’t give any chances on my serve which was strong and my plan to force him to take the net worked perfectly.”.

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