MADRID // Andy Murray fought back from a set down to defeat the world No 2 Roger Federer and progress through to the final of the Madrid Masters. Murray also gained revenge for his defeat to Federer in last month's US Open final with today's 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory in the Spanish capital, and he will next face either world No 1 Rafael Nadal or Gilles Simon in today's final.
The world No 4 Murray lost 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 to Federer at Flushing Meadows in what was the Scot's first grand slam final, and he had to do it the hard way to avoid another defeat to the former world No 1 after losing the first set. The first breakthrough of the match came in the sixth game when Murray, having already saved one break point at 30-40, overhit a forehand to leave Federer holding a 4-2 advantage.
Federer, who this week overtook Pete Sampras as the record prize winner in men's tennis history, did not let that advantage slip as Murray dropped his first set this week. Having won two of his four career meetings with Federer previously though, Murray, 21, knew that the situation was salvageable. And so it proved as the fourth seed broke Federer in the fourth game of the second set to level the match up and keep alive his hopes of winning a fourth ATP title of the year. In the final set the impressive Murray looked to hold the upper hand throughout and had Federer regularly in all sorts of trouble on his own serve. But he had to wait until the 11th game of the set to finally make it count. * PA Sport
