California dream alive for Murray

General / Editor / 17 February 2007 / Leave a Comment

Reigning champion Andy Murray came back from a set down to overpower Korea's Hyung-Taik Lee in the quarter-finals of the Sap Open in San Jose.
Murray's defence of the title looked to be in trouble when he struggled to find his timing early on and dropped the first set 6-4.

But the British number one recovered to take the second set after an early break and looked in position to seal his passage through to the last four when he broke at 5-5 in the decider.
But Lee saved a match point and hit back to force a tie-break before Murray finally prevailed 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-4).

Top seed Andy Roddick awaits Murray in Saturday's night session semi-final, after the American beat compatriot Vince Spadea in three sets.
Murray said: "I thought I did well to get through. It's great for my game to be playing these kind of players (Roddick).

"The most important thing is to return well and to try to take care of my serve."
Roddick powered past Spadea in the final set to win 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-1after the eighth seed hit back from a break down in the second set to force a decider.
Roddick said: "My focus was all over the place in the first two sets.
"I don't know why, but then the third set was probably the best set I have played all week."
The American will be looking to improve his head-to-head record against Murray who got the better of him in San Diego last year and later again at Wimbledon.

But Roddick did gain a measure of revenge by beating the Scot in the Masters Series Event at Cincinnati in August and is rated the 1.65 Betfair favourite to progress to Sunday's final.
Murray can be backed at 2.48 to win outright and at 4.8 to win in three sets, with a price of 4.0 available about the Briton completing a straight-sets victory.

Roddick is 2.44 to win without dropping a set and 3.85 to go through via another decider.