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Saturday February 14, 2009

Murray through to last four as Gicquel retires with thigh injury

ROTTERDAM: Second-seeded Andy Murray reached the Rotterdam Open semi-finals yesterday after Marc Gicquel of France retired with a thigh injury with the Scot leading 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 3-0.

Murray will meet Mario Ancic in the last four after the Croat had a straightforward 6-4, 6-2 win over Mikhail Youzhny of Russia.

Gicquel, who was only in the tournament as a last-minute replacement for injured Swede Robin Soderling, matched Murray shot for shot through the first two sets but called for the physio and had his left thigh bandaged after the ninth game of the second set.

The Frenchman still managed to break Murray to take the set, but the Scot immediately broke him twice in the third before Gicquel gave up.

Andy Murray

“It’s never good to end a match like this,” Murray said. “It was a good match with lots of chances. I was very pleased with my service.

“I was hitting the ball well, I had opportunities on my serve but he served well also and made it very difficult for me.”

Murray, champion at the start of the year in Doha, fired nine aces in the tight match but failed to take it in straight sets as Gicquel earned a set point in the second followed by a Murray mis-hit to take it into a third.

But by that time it was obvious that the Frenchman was hurting, with Gicquel giving up after going down a double-break in the third.

Ancic, the runner-up last week in Zagreb, Croatia, reached the Rotterdam Open final in 2005 and won the Den Bosch tournament on grass in 2005 and 2006.

He is fighting back to form after several seasons of illness (glandular fever) and injury. But with his fitness and desire back, the sky’s the limit for the newly optimistic Croatian.

“I wish I could play in the Netherlands every week,” he said. “My results here are great.”

Earlier on Thursday, Rafael Nadal defeated world number 490 Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 on to reach the quarter-finals, but the Bulgarian teenager demonstrated his exciting potential as a future star.

World number one Nadal had plenty of problems with the 17-year-old junior Wimbledon and US Open winner who broke the newly-crowned Australian Open champion in the eighth game of the second set on his way to levelling the match.

But Nadal, who has struggled all week on the ultra-fast court here, quickly recovered his poise to reach the last eight although Dimitrov twice had chances in the final set to grab a break before running out of steam.

“He is heading to the top 10, for sure,” said the Spaniard, who broke on seven of 12 chances in the tight second round contest.

“It was a really tough match and I had to work to win it.”— AP


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