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Shanghai Masters

Murray and Federer both safely through in Shanghai

Murray ended Radek Stepanek’s impressive run at the Shanghai Rolex Masters, with the British third seed winning 4-6 6-2 6-3.

ANDY MURRAY HAS ended Radek Stepanek’s impressive run at the Shanghai Rolex Masters, with the British third seed winning 4-6 6-2 6-3.

Stepanek came into Friday’s quarter-final having knocked out eighth seed John Isner and 11th seed Richard Gasquet in his previous two matches but the veteran Czech failed to eliminate his third seeded player in succession, despite taking the opening set against Murray.

Defending champion Murray won just one point on Stepanek’s first serve in the opening set as the 33-year-old Czech took it 6-4.

Having won just 20 percent of points on return in the first set, Murray improved that statistic to 52 over the next two sets to triumph in two hours and 18 minutes.

Murray will face world number one Roger Federer in the semi-finals of the ATP 1000 event after the 31-year-old Swiss defeated 10th seed Marin Cilic 6-3 6-4.

Federer managed eight aces against the towering Croatian and broke Cilic’s serve five times for the match as he won in one hour and 21 minutes.

Serbian number two seed Novak Djokovic overcame Tommy Haas of Germany in their quarter-final.

Djokovic had plenty of success against Haas’ second serve, winning 65 percent of points when the 34-year-old German missed his first serve.

And Haas won just nine points on serve in the second set as Djokovic broke him four times to win the match in one hour and 21 minutes.

Djokovic will take on fourth seed Tomas Berdych in the semi-finals after the 27-year-old Czech eliminated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3 7-6 (7-4).

The big-serving pair combined for 16 aces in their quarter-final, while both won over 80 percent of points on their first serve.

But Berdych managed to break Tsonga’s serve on one occasion, which gave the Czech the first set, and then claimed the second-set tie breaker to defeat the French fifth seed.

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