Britain's Andy Murray retursn the ball to Spain's David Ferrer during their quarterfinal match of the French Open tennis tournament, at the Roland Garros stadium. Photo / AP.
Britain's Andy Murray retursn the ball to Spain's David Ferrer during their quarterfinal match of the French Open tennis tournament, at the Roland Garros stadium. Photo / AP.
Andy Murray beat David Ferrer 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 5-7 6-1 in the French Open quarter-finals on Wednesday to set up a last-four showdown with Novak Djokovic.
Third seed Murray made it 15 consecutive wins on clay this year by beating the seventh seed Ferrer and make it a disappointing dayall round for Spain following nine-time champion Rafael Nadal's defeat to Djokovic earlier.
Murray becomes the first British player to reach the semi-finals at Roland Garros on three separate occasions having previously been knocked out in the last four in 2011 and 2014.
"I was frustrated at the end of the third set because I had match points and it's very difficult to then play a full set more after that," said Murray.
On the prospect of facing Djokovic, who he trails by 18-8 in career meetings, he added: "It's going to be an extremely tough match but I hope it's a good one.
The Scot was 3-0 up in the third set before he let the 2013 runner-up back into the match.
First Murray failed to convert a match point at 5-4 up on Ferrer's serve and then he was broken in the next game as the Spaniard forced a fourth set.
However, he could not maintain the fightback and the 28-year-old Murray ran away with the set, taking it 6-1 to seal victory after three hours and 16 minutes on court.