Murray through to semi-final of the Shanghai Masters

Andy Murray progressed to the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters after beating the Czech Radek Stepanek in three sets. Murray, who is chasing a hat-trick of consecutive titles at the event in China, dropped the first set, but recovered to clinch the next two 6-2 6-3. 

Stepanek, who is ranked 41^st in the world, seemed to take his opponent by surprise when he broke Murray in the fifth game of the match. The Czech then held on to take the first set 6-4. The Scot responded well in the second set, however, and overcame a nervous start to the third. Having been broken in the third game of the final set, the world number three immediately broke back, before holding his nerve to clinch the victory. 

“It was quite a scrappy first couple of sets,” Murray said. “The second set I managed to get a break, got a bit of momentum. I just managed to turn it around in time. I played actually very well I thought the last 10, 15 minutes of the match.” 

Murray will now face Roger Federer in the last four, where they are joined by Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych, who beat Tommy Haas and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga respectively.
 
Meanwhile there were mixed fortunes for the two British ladies at the Japan Open in Osaka, as Heather Watson claimed a place in the semi finals at the expense of Pauline Parmentier of France, while Laura Robson lost to Chang Kai-chen in a third set tie-break. 

Watson triumphed In a somewhat unconventional match which saw 12 breaks of serve in just 21 games. The 20-year-old from Guernsey will now face Japan’s Misaki Doe, who pulled off one of the upsets of the tournament to beat seventh seed Chanelle Scheepers.

Theo Chiles, tennis correspondent