Former world primary Andy Murray secured his first victory over a top-five opponent in six years with a 7-6,(4) 6-3 win over Greek prime seed Stefanos Tsitsipas to achieve the semi-finals of the Stuttgart Open on Friday.
He’ll face Australian Nick Kyrgios within the semifinals.
The 2-time Wimbledon champion stepped up his preparation for the grasscourt main beginning this month by battling by a good opening set towards world quantity 5 Tsitsipas earlier than rolling again the years within the second set to finish the win.
The Scot’s largest win by rating since he overcame Novak Djokovic on the 2016 ATP Finals arrange a semi-final assembly with both Hungarian Marton Fucsovics or Australian Nick Kyrgios.
“I believed I did nicely. He served unbelievably nicely within the first set and I had only a few probabilities after I was returning,” the 35-year-old Murray mentioned in his post-match interview.
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“However when he was creating alternatives on my serve I stayed sturdy. I performed a extremely stable tiebreak and within the second set, I served nicely whereas his dropped slightly bit.
“As soon as I used to be within the rallies I felt like I used to be dictating a whole lot of the factors so it was a great efficiency.”
Murray mentioned that he was completely happy to hit prime gear on his most popular floor.
“I do not wish to say I used to be the smarter participant, however perhaps this floor fits my type. Stefanos performs nicely on all surfaces however this works actually properly for my recreation and I will use my strengths higher.”
Matteo Berrettini, the 2021 Wimbledon runner-up, earlier booked his place within the final 4 of the ATP 250 occasion with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over fellow Italian Lorenzo Sonego.
He subsequent faces native favorite Oscar Otte, who went by following a walkover by Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi.