A hard time for Ferrer

Terrer  had a tough time with Lopez, too. Although Lopez is ranked 23 spots below Ferrer, he had a 6-1 record against his countryman on hard courts coming into the match and had eliminated three seeded players in straight sets to reach the semifinals.

“I know the record with him, it was bad, no? But I tried to refocus on my game,” Ferrer said. “I had confidence with me, with my game.”

Lopez was the more aggressive player in the first set, coming in behind his big serve and backhand slice repeatedly to finish off points at the net. After going down 4-1 in the tiebreaker, Lopez hit three big serves and a running backhand crosscourt winner to come back to take the set.

But Ferrer rebounded in the second, breaking Lopez in the third game when Lopez hit a slice backhand wide. He then got the decisive break in the third set when Lopez missed another shot badly wide while serving at 3-4.

“Maybe today I played the better match of this week,” he said. “When I lost the first set, I tried to forget the tiebreak and I tried to focus again. I played better in the second and the third.”

Murray and Ferrer are separated by just one place in the rankings, but the Scot has a formidable edge in Masters-level events. Murray has won seven Masters tournaments, while Ferrer is still looking for his first one.

Murray has also beaten Ferrer twice this year—last week in the semifinals of the Japan Open in Tokyo and in the semifinals of the Australian Open in January.