Murray not able to use his breaks to the best advantage

Andy Murray was left to rue missed opportunities as his French Open campaign came to an end against David Ferrer.

The world No 4 had never beaten Ferrer on clay in three previous meetings and the relentless hitting and intensity of the 30-year-old ensured it was he who advanced to a semi-final against Rafael Nadal tomorrow leaving Murray to admit he was beaten by the better player.

Murray certainly had his chances in the three hours and 45 minutes they battled in cool and wet conditions on Court Suzanne Lenglen, but Ferrer did not allow him to get ahead at any point in the match and ran out a deserved 6-4 6-7 (3/7) 6-3 6-2 winner.

“I thought I played some good tennis,” said Murray.

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“I just didn’t convert. I had a lot of chances in the last couple of sets on his serve and I lost a lot of really long games on my serve, which didn’t help.

“Against him, he is so solid, so consistent, that if you’re not converting your opportunities, it turns into many long games and then the pressure can build on your serve.

“He obviously broke me a lot of times the last couple of sets. I had chances to break him and didn’t convert them like he did.”

Murray began the match hitting the ball very well but went down an early break and, although he retrieved it with Ferrer serving for the set, he then promptly dropped his serve again.

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It was to become a familiar pattern. Twice Murray moved ahead in the second set and twice he was pegged straight back, although he did go on to win the set, five straight points helping him clinch the tie-break.

The first two sets had been played in near constant drizzle, with one very brief delay, but they were forced off for nearly half an hour at the start of the third set.

Murray was broken almost immediately on the resumption and from there he was always fighting to stay in contention.

An early break in the fourth set looked like it might swing the match his way but again Ferrer was straight back on the Scot’s heels and there was no way back.

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A revealing statistic showed that Murray did not cement any of his five breaks by holding his own serve, a weakness the 25-year-old has showed in a number of matches.

He said: “It wasn’t something I thought about during the match. It’s something I need to look at and see if it was something that I did wrong or something he did well.”

The slow conditions were certainly in Ferrer’s favour, and Murray insisted the rain delay had not been a crucial factor in the result.

“He started better than me after the rain delay but then I did break to get back in at 3-2 and was feeling okay,” he said.

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“Ideally I would have liked to have started a bit better. It was the same for both of us. It was actually probably better conditions to play in after we came back. After the rain delay there wasn’t as much wind and the sun was out a little bit.”

The defeat broke Murray’s run of five successive grand slam semi-finals dating back to the Australian Open in 2011, but his disappointment was tempered by the knowledge he had come through a tough draw on his least favourite surface.

The Scot, who reached the last four at Roland Garros for the first time last year, said: “I think it was a good tournament for me.

“Coming in, I probably wasn’t feeling as good as I did coming in last year. I believe I lost to a better clay-court player than me tonight.

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“I’ll need to work on some things in my clay-court game for next year. But it’s not the first time he’s won against me on clay. It was going to be a tough match for me, and it proved that way.

“But I won against Juan Ignacio Chela in the quarter-finals last year, and obviously this year I was playing against Ferrer, so it was a slightly different match-up.”

Nadal powered past fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro to continue his bid for a seventh title.

The defending champion won in straight sets and extended his career record to 8-0 against the 12th seed, but he was made to work a little harder than those figures suggest.

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The first set went to a tie-break but the second was one-sided, and a resurgent effort from Almagro in the third set came too late to prevent a 7-6 (7/4) 6-2 6-3 defeat.

In the women’s draw, Petra Kvitova hopes she can take the same attitude into today’s semi-final against Maria Sharapova that helped her to win Wimbledon last summer.

The Czech was fearless on Centre Court in her first grand slam final as she overpowered Sharapova with huge groundstrokes and served out the victory with an ace.

It will be the third time they have faced each other in the last four slams, with the Russian getting some revenge for Wimbledon by winning their semi-final at the Australian Open before losing the final to Azarenka.

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Kvitova said: “It’s always a big challenge to play against somebody who is a really top opponent. We have had very close matches. She has had a great year and she’s playing very well.

“Wimbledon was something special for me. It was my first final. I was No 8 and she was the favourite. I didn’t have anything to lose so I just played my game. It was different, for sure.”

Kvitova had to battle hard to make the last four at Roland Garros for the first time yesterday, seeing off qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova 3-6 6-2 6-4.

After her struggles against Klara Zakopalova in the fourth round, where there were 21 breaks of serve, Sharapova had a much easier time of it against Kaia Kanepi in her quarter-final.

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Apart from a brief spell at the start of the second set, the second seed was always in front and came through 6-2 6-3.

“It’s certainly nice to be in this position again,” said Sharapova. “It’s my third time in the semi-finals.

“After a tough match in the previous round, I’m happy with the way I improved in this match.

“I thought that was really important because she’s someone that always competes and plays really well, against top players especially.

“She has that extra motivation.”