Andy Murray dominated Roger Federer again, beating the 13-time Grand Slam title winner 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6) late on Friday in the semifinals of the Capitala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi.
The exhibition event, which is not part of the ATP Tour, features six of the top 10 players and offers a winner-take-all prize of US$250,000.
Murray entered the exhibition with a 4-2 record over Federer. He lost to Federer in the US Open final, then beat the Swiss star in three sets at the Madrid Masters in October and the Masters Cup in Shanghai in November.
Murray will play top-ranked Rafael Nadal, who defeated Nikolay Davydenko 6-2, 6-3.
"I have realized that I will win some and lose some," Federer said. "As long as I enjoy the game, I don't mind the losses. But I surely want to win the big games."
Murray said he wants to defeat Federer when it counts.
"We had some close matches in the past. He beat me in the US Open last year, but hopefully I will beat him at a grand slam," Murray said.
Federer broke Murray in the first game before dropping serve in the fifth. In the 10th game, a backhand winner from Federer and a double-fault by Murray ended the set.
In the second set, Murray broke Federer in the opening game and rallied from three game points down in the third to take a 3-0 lead. Though Murray lost serve in the sixth game, he broke back to even the match.
Federer attempted to serve and volley, but was often beaten as he approached the net.
In the third set before a crowd of 5,000, Murray broke in the third and fifth games but lost his serve in the sixth. Federer saved three match points to rally to 6-6 in the tiebreaker, but Murray clinched it when the second-ranked Swiss star sailed a return long.
Nadal dropped his opening serve in the second game but reeled off the next six games. Davydenko hung on in the second set but was broken in the sixth game and Nadal closed out the match.
In Australia, top-seeded Ana Ivanovic will meet Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in the first round of the Brisbane International.
The reigning French Open champion, who has been training in Australia for the past three weeks, was drawn yesterday to play Kvitova in a center-court match at the new Pat Rafter Arena on Monday.
Former world's No. 1 Ivanovic, 21, lost to Maria Sharapova in last year's Australian Open final.
"I really want to take it one step further this time and hopefully win it," Ivanovic, now ranked fifth, said yesterday. "It's very important to start well and get your confidence. I've worked very hard and I believe I have the qualities to get back to No. 1. It's going to be tough for sure but I can do it."
The inaugural Brisbane International is a joint ATP-WTA event and is one of several tune-up tournaments for the Australian Open which begins on January 19.
Men's top-seeded Novak Djokovic, the defending Australian Open champion, was drawn to play Ernests Gulbis of Latvia. He is 2-0 against Gulbis in previous matches.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, the No. 2 seed and losing finalist to Djokovic at Melbourne last year, will play Agustin Calleri of Argentina.
Australian wildcard Jelena Dokic drew former Wimbledon and Australian Open champion Amelie Mauresmo. Dokic, who won an Australian Open wildcard spot two weeks ago, has lost two of three career matches against Mauresmo, who is seeded fifth in Brisbane.
Mauresmo has looked strong in practice and believes she's put a number of stalled comebacks behind her following an offseason of training in Europe under new coach Hugo Lecoq.
"I'm continuing to play tennis because I think I can still do well and win tournaments," Mauresmo, 29, said yesterday. "It's been almost two years since I've held a trophy and I kind of miss it and I look forward to tournaments like here and Sydney before Melbourne. I haven't seen (Dokic) play for a while, so it's going to be a little bit of a surprise."
China's Li Na has withdrawn from the tournament with a knee injury, allowing Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic into the main draw.
(Agencies via Shanghai Daily January 4, 2009)
