By Erik Gudris | Thursday, February 27, 2014

 

Andy Murray overcame yet another slow start to reach his first semifinal in seven months at Acapulco. Earlier, top seed David Ferrer exited due to injury.

Photo Credit: AP
 

The men's quarterfinals at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco ended up being a long and sometimes strange day with several unexpected developments. By the end, one former champion was out while the event's remaining top seed struggled before winning.

David Ferrer, a previous three-time champion of the event when it was held on clay, looked poised to roll over Kevin Anderson in their quarterfinal. Despite Anderson doing all he could to stay in the first set rallies, Ferrer soon claimed it 6-2.

But in the second set, Ferrer was down on the court in pain. 

After being treated by a trainer for a left adductor strain, Ferrer decided he couldn't go on and eventually retired with the score at 6-2, 2-4.

Ferrer's exit means that for the first time since the event moved from Mexico City to Acapulco, there will be no champion either from Spain or South America.

Anderson will now face Alexandr Dolgopolov, who earlier defeated Ivo Karlovic 6-4, 7-6(4).

Murray Staves Off Simon in Roller Coaster Match

No. 2 seed Andy Murray entered his quarterfinal versus France's Gilles Simon having won their last 11 meetings stretching back to 2007. Though Murray may have felt good about his chances going in, the Scot again didn't inspire much confidence to his fans by getting off to a slow start.

Tossing in ill-timed drop shots while serving very slow second serves, Murray found himself down a double break to Simon.

Striking 11 winners, Simon took the first set 6-1.

Murray picked up his play and produced some mesmerizing extended all-court rallies with Simon. But Simon continued to feast on Murray's poor second serve. A dejected Murray smacked his racquet down break point at 4-3 when he thought his shot wouldn't make it over the net. It did, but Simon was waiting there to tap it over to go up 5-3. Murray's racquet smash appeared to energize the No. 2 seed as he soon reeled off eight of the next nine points to get back level at 5-all.

The set ended with a tiebreak that Murray secured 7-6(4).

A deflated Simon then sought treatment for a neck issue early in the third set and lost all of his punch. He went down an early break to Murray and never recovered. Though Murray himself would slip on the court and appear to injure his groin, it didn't affect him down the stretch.

Holding three match points, Murray only needed one to close out the ragged 1-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 win.

This is now the first semifinal appearance for Murray at an event since he won Wimbledon last year.

Next up for Murray is Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.

Dimitrov found himself down a set and only a game away from losing to Latvia's Ernests Gulbis in the last quarterfinal of the evening. But the Bulgarian rallied to win 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-5.