Murray into LA Semifinals, Plays Lopez Tonight; Sharapova Alive in Stanford
Three of the top four seeds have reached the semifinals at the Los Angeles Farmers Classic. The quartet is led by top seed Andy Murray of Scotland who takes on No. 4 seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the evening while defending champion and No. 2 seed Sam Querrey takes on Janko Tipsarevic. ADHEREL
Murray brings a 2-0 mark against the lefty Lopez who edged James Blake yesterday in three sets. The 23-year-old Scot reached his lone final this year at the Australian Open (l. to Federer) in January while Lopez won his second career ATP World Tour title in Johannesburg (d. Robert) in February.
Murray said of Lopez, “Since the first time I saw him, I realized he was a very talented player and would be one of the best players in the world.”
Earlier, Querrey takes on Tipsarevic for the second time. In their previous meeting in the first round of Indianapolis in 2006 the American prevailed in three sets. Tipsarevic is trying to reach his second ATP World Tour final of the season and third in his career (0-2). Querrey is 3-1 in ATP World Tour finals this year and he’s the only player to win titles on three different surfaces in 2010. Overall, the 22-year-old American is 5-5 in his career in ATP World Tour finals.
Of the remaining players, Querrey (three times) and Lopez (once) have won titles on the ATP World Tour this season. Murray and Tipsarevic have turned in one runner-up showing.
In Stanford, former No. 1 Maria Sharapova salted away Elena Dementieva last night in three tough sets. She now meets Agenieska Radwanska in the night semifinals. In the afternoon, Victoria Azarenka will face French Open finalist Sam Stosur.
“Sam has been in great form the whole year. She has a huge serve,” said Azarenka, who turned 21 on Saturday and leads Stosur 3-0 H2H. “I will fight hard and play my game.”
“There have been times we played close matches, other times she has killed me,” Stosur said. “The last time we played was Miami last year though, and a lot of things have changed since then. Hopefully I can turn things around.”
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