DAVID FERRER AND ANDY MURRAY MAINTAIN PACE FOR LONDON, & GET HELP FROM DAVID GOFFIN BY RICKY DIMON

Written by: Staff on 24th October 2014

DAVID FERRER AND ANDY MURRAY MAINTAIN PACE FOR LONDON, & GET HELP FROM DAVID GOFFIN BY RICKY DIMON

epa04461604 Andy Murray of Britain in action against South African Kevin Anderson during the Valencia Open 500 quarters final match at the Agora tennis court in Valencia, Spain, 24 October 2014. EPA/KAI FOERSTERLING |

It was an ideal Friday afternoon for David Ferrer and Andy Murray. The two World Tour Finals hopefuls won their respective quarterfinal matches at the Valencia Open and also saw fellow London contender Milos Raonic lose to David Goffin in Basel. Ferrer and Murray are now set to face each other on Saturday in a match that will have significant London implications.

Murray began the day with a hard-fought 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Kevin Anderson. The 10th-ranked Scot started slow but broke Anderson twice in the second set and faced no break points on his own serve in the third.

Andy Murray of Britain in action against South African Kevin Anderson during the Valencia Open 500 quarters final match at the Agora tennis court in Valencia, Spain, 24 October 2014. EPA/KAI FOERSTERLING

“It was very tough,” Murray admitted. “There were a lot of long games; long rallies. I started to read his serve a little bit better at the end of the second set. I was creating a lot of chances on his service games. I improved my serve throughout the match. That was really the difference, but it was extremely close. I just managed to get through.”

David Ferrer of Spain returns the ball to Tobias Kamke of Germany during their second round match of the Erste Bank Open ATP tennis tournament in Vienna, Austria, 16 October 2014. EPA/HELMUT FOHRINGER

Ferrer had a much easier day at the office. The top-seeded Spaniard booked his semifinal spot by rolling over Thomaz Bellucci 6-1, 6-2 in one hour and seven minutes. Ferrer and Murray will face each other for the third time in the last 17 days, having previously squared off in Shanghai and Vienna.

“It’s going to be a tough match,” said Ferrer. “Tomorrow is a very important match for both players. I will try to do my best because whoever wins tomorrow will have a lot of options to be in London.”

Both, actually, will be in good shape to qualify regardless of Saturday’s result thanks to Rafael Nadal’s likely withdrawal and Milos Raonic’s Basel quarterfinal loss to David Goffin. Raonic, who is trailing Ferrer and Murray in the race to London, dropped a crucial match to Goffin 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4.

The Ferrer-Murray loser will be ninth in the race after this week, while Murray could climb as high as fifth and Ferrer could reach No. 6 with a title.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: Andy Murray, Atp, David Ferrer, David Goffin, London, Ricky Dimon, Tennis, Valencia Open

Follow 10SBALLS.COM on:

Facebook:

Twitter:

10sBalls_com says:

October 24, 2014 at 3:29 pm

@DavidFerrer87 AND @andy_murray MAINTAIN PACE FOR #LONDON, & GET HELP FROM DAVID #GOFFIN BY @RD_Tennistalk- http://t.co/vBzclt6ZF6 #tennis
RD_Tennistalk says:

October 24, 2014 at 3:41 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: @DavidFerrer87 AND @andy_murray MAINTAIN PACE FOR #LONDON, & GET HELP FROM DAVID #GOFFIN BY @RD_Tennistalk- http://t.co/v…