Federer, Murray reach Dubai semifinals

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)â€"Roger Federer and Andy Murray both advanced to the semifinals of the Dubai Championships on Thursday, each winning in straight sets.

Federer, who is looking for his fifth Dubai title, beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-4, defeating the Russian for the 12th straight time. Murray advanced by beating Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-5.

With his serve working as good as it has all week, the second-seeded Federer again won without losing a set.

“I thought, again, on my serve I was doing many of the right things,” said Federer, who had five aces and won 80 percent of the points on his second serve.

“It’s quick out there, so you got to be really focused,” he said. “He was obviously taking a lot chances for one set and a half. Maybe his energy wasn’t quite up. You know, at the end he really got pumped up a bit, but it was almost too late for him.”

The 16-time Grand Slam champion will next face either eighth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro or fourth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga match.

Murray broke early in the first set, and later saved four break points to advance.

“That’s one thing I’ve always been very comfortable with, closing matches out,” Murray said. “I played three great serves to bring it to 40-Love and then missed a few first serves in a row and he went for some big shots. Then once you’re back at deuce you’re thinking, God, I’ve just blown three match points. So you kind of just want to try get through it if you can.”

Berdych had a chance to break to take the second set to a tiebreaker. Murray delivered a serve that was initially called out but overturned on review. Umpire Mohammed Lahyani gave the point to Murray, leaving Berdych angry because he felt the point should have been replayed.

Lahyani argued that Berdych had already played his return into the net when the call came.

“When the point end up like this, actually this is something you don’t expect at all,” Berdych said. “You just trying to be focus on the game and go point by point, and then something like that came and you know you are right. What you can do? I was at least trying to focus back, to not lost straight away the points. But this quite affects the concentration.”

Murray could now play top-ranked Novak Djokovic in a repeat of the Australian Open semifinals, which the Serb won in five sets. Djokovic faces seventh-seeded Janko Tipsarevic later Thursday.

“It should be obviously a great challenge. Any time you play against the top players, that’s the case,” Murray said. “I would like to get a chance to play him again. You know, before the Indian Wells-Miami stretch it would be good to see exactly what I need to work on, where my game is. I had a great match with him in Australia, and hopefully can reverse the result tomorrow.”