Andy Murray downs Grigor Dimitrov at Cincinnati Masters

But once a fan realised who was behind the counter, Murray, who ended his eight-match losing streak against Novak Djokovic at the Montreal Masters last week, happily posed for photographs.

“He takes the ball incredibly early and the ball comes off his racquet so quick sometimes”. Murray will line up against Djokovic after the top seed defeated France’s Jeremy Chardy 6-4 6-4 in the other semifinal. He’s since moved +350, closing the gap between himself and Djokovic. But then the nerves of the less experienced Goffin kicked in and Djokovic sniffed the weakness.

Dimitrov had an advantage in the opening set and easily won it after achieving a break in the first game. I’ve had some close matches and some tough losses – the Miami final, the Australian Open, the French Open – so to win this one was nice, especially the way the match was as well.

He, like Djokovic, had to dig deep to reach the quarters at all.

In the women’s event, Serena Williams came through her first match of the tournament 7-5 6-3 against Tsetana Pironkova, having been given a bye into the second round, and the American pulled out all her big aces to get the job done.

“There were many, many important points in that match”, he said.

“It’s fine”, Djokovic told Gilbert in his on-court interview. The knockabout was in aid of the Royal Marsden hospital where the Scot’s good friend and fellow tennis player Ross Hutchins had been treated for cancer. He has won the tournament once in 2013 and will be hoping to lift the title for the second time this year. He had yet to beat anyone ranked in the top five and had recorded just two top-10 wins-David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych.

Andy is in the States to compete in the Cincinnati Masters, where he’s due to play the excellently-named US tennis player Mardy Fish in a week’s time. It was a notion that might have occurred to him at the depth of his increasingly dire circumstances on Thursday night, but it is not in his nature to collapse when that looks the most likely scenario.

“This was my best performance since (winning) Wimbledon“. Lopez ousted Nadal after a grueling two hours and 24 minutes winning the match 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (3). Murray sealed the win with an ace and a heavy service victor. The defending champion is trying for an unprecedented seventh title in Cincinnati.

Federer and Murray’s pathways to the semifinals in Cincinnati have been completely different. He lost only 14 points off his serve while beating Murray for the fifth time in a row.