Thiem ousts Murray
Top seed Dominic Thiem held off a spirited display from Britain’s Andy Murray in a 6-2 7-6(3) victory to reach the China Open semifinals in Beijing yesterday.
Austrian Thiem was off to a flying start as he broke serve in a 14-point opening game, and did so again to move 4-2 up before closing out the first set.
Thiem failed to serve out the match at 5-4 in the second set as he hit three double faults in four points to allow Murray to draw level.
Former world number one Murray, playing his first quarterfinal in over a year following a career-saving hip surgery in January, forced the second set into tiebreak but Thiem soon rediscovered his rhythm.
Thiem won five of the first six points in the tiebreak before securing a place in his seventh Tour-level semifinal of the season.
“I was a little bit unsure kind of how to go about the match at the beginning... I was feeling a little bit tired this morning,” Murray said.
Meanwhile, Alexander Zverev continued his steady progress with a 7-6(3) 6-2 win over American Sam Querrey.
From 2-2 in the second set, Zverev reeled off four consecutive games to set up a semifinal showdown with Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
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