Murray Coasts Into London Semifinals

The top two players in the world will do battle for the number one spot in a fitting climax to the season at the ATP World Tour Finals after reaching the O2 Arena showdown in contrasting fashion.

The opening set of the match was on serve until a late break from Murray allowed him to take the first set.

“Once I got through the early part of the match, I started to create chances in most of his service games”, said Murray. “Ive played so much tennis the last few months.

His resistance cracked two games later as a tired double fault gave Raonic the chance to serve for the set, which he took on his third set point.

Murray’s straight-set success also put Kei Nishikori into the final four, with the Japanese taking second position in the group and facing Djokovic next.

“That would lead me to believe that if they walk on the court on Sunday in the finals, he’d have a real chance to get things right in his mind and finish the year world number one”.

Next up for Nishikori is a final four match against Djokovic.

When Murray dumped a forehand into the net to give Raonic a break in the third game of the second set, he looked in deep trouble.

For all of Murray’s achievements this year, this was the first time he played a top-five opponent since June, when he lost to Djokovic in the French Open final.

This one was particularly galling as he frequently outplayed the world number one and had a match point in the final-set tiebreak before bowing out after three hours 38 minutes of toe-to-toe combat against the home favourite. “He’s good a huge serve, but I look forward to playing every match out here, with its unbelievable atmosphere and awesome stadium”. Djokovic won for the 16th consecutive time at the ATP Finals and the five-time champion will bid to tie Roger Federer on Sunday by winning a record sixth title.

Had they won Murray and Soares would have needed to win their semi-final on Saturday.

6-3 victory over Austrian Dominic Thiem Thursday left him second in the Ivan Lendl Group behind Novak Djokovic who won all his three matches.

“It was obviously unbelievably tough”. Now we don t, I think we re probably each other s biggest fans.

First, he must get past Raonic for the third time in a major clash in London this year, having beaten him in the final at both Queen’s Club and Wimbledon in the summer. “I played a very solid match”.

“Why would you rush when you’ve had 14 hours to get ready?” I know I ll need to play well to win.

Round robin play concluded later as already-eliminated Croatian Marin Cilic warmed up for next week’s Davis Cup final against Argentina by beating a tiring Nishikori 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. The Swiss saved three set points at 3-5 but Murray was bossing the match by then and held serve in the next game.