Rising star – BY SKIP BANDELE
Andrew Murray continued his good form ahead of the US Open by reaching the semi-final of a Masters Series event for the first time in Toronto. The 19-year-old Scot dispatched David Ferrer, Jonas Bjorkmann, Tim Henman, Carlos Moya and Jarkko Nieminen, before falling to another young man, rapidly making a name for himself: Richard Gasquet.
The 12 months older French shooting star overcame the likes of James Blake and Nadal-conqueror Tomáš Berdych before stopping Murray 6-2, 7-5 to earn a place in the final against Roger Federer. The world number one, on a 17-match winning roll, extended that sequence, but had to come back from a set down to do so.
Murray, who has now broken into the world’s top 25, will have faced Henman again in the first round of this week’s Cincinnati Masters.