SHANGHAI (AP) Andy Murray reached his fourth final of the year by defeating Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-4, 6-1 Saturday in the Shanghai Masters.
The fourth-ranked Murray has not dropped a set in four matches in the tournament and will play the winner between No. 2 Novak Djokovic and No. 3 Roger Federer.
Murray broke Monaco's serve early in the first set before taking a 5-2 lead. But he committed four straight errors when trying to close out the set and dropped serve for only the second time all week.
Murray broke right back in the next game, which included a point where he saved three overheads in a row with backhand lobs before Monaco finally sent a smash wide.
I chased a lot of balls down, he made a few mistakes,'' Murray said.Points like that can sort of change matches a little bit. But I was still feeling quite comfortable, even at that stage.''
Monaco said he couldn't recover from losing that exchange.
I was totally unfocused after that,'' Monaco said.I have like five smashes and I couldn't finish the point. (That) was tough for me.''
Monaco, who was sidelined for three months this summer with a wrist injury, beat 13th-seeded Jurgen Melzer in a quarterfinal that lasted nearly three hours Friday. This was his first semifinal since February.
Murray has won seven of his 12 career matches against Federer, including the final in Toronto in August - his only title of the year. He has lost four of seven matches against Djokovic, but won the last three.