Murray downs Becker to make Queen’s semis

Andy Murray remains on track for a third Queen’s Club title after the world number two booked his semi-final place with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) victory against Germany’s Benjamin Becker on Friday.

Murray last won the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event in 2011 and the US Open champion is eyeing another morale-boosting triumph as he prepares for his latest assault on the All England Club.

The 26-year-old is playing in his first tournament since mid-May when he suffered a lower back injury that forced him to withdraw from the French Open.

Murray had no signs of rust when he swept aside both Nicolas Mahut and Marinko Matosevic on Thursday and this was another encouraging outing against the gritty Becker.

Next up for Murray is French fourth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win against 20-year-old American Denis Kudla.

The tie will be a rematch of the 2011 Queen’s final, which Murray won in three sets, and also last year’s Wimbledon semi-final, which the Scot also won.

“I thought the first set was good and then he started playing much better in the second,” Murray told the BBC.

“I just managed to hang tough and get the win. The conditions were tough again, but it’s only my first week on grass.” The top seed had never faced Becker in competitive action before, but still knew plenty about the 31-year-old after practising regularly with him during his winter training camp in Miami. Murray’s superiority was clear as he broke in the opening game and a sloppy smash from Becker on break point in the fifth game gifted the Scot as 4-1 lead.

A brief lapse from Murray handed a break back to Becker in the next game, but the Olympic gold medallist held serve to close out the set.

Murray looked certain for a routine win when he broke at the start of the second set.

But his concentration wavered and Becker, who suddenly started to unload some searing groundstrokes, hit back with two breaks to take a 4-2 lead. That sparked Murray back into action and he broke to force a tie-break, which he won in no-nonsense fashion.

Lleyton Hewitt rolled back the years as the Australian moved into the last four with a surprise 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 victory over Argentine third seed Juan Martin del Potro. Hewitt is a four-time Queen’s champion and this year he is bidding to become the oldest man to win the event, surpassing American legend Jimmy Connors, who lifted the trophy aged 30 years and 284 days in 1983.

AFP