Andy Murray Breezes Past Fernando Verdasco As Rafael Nadal Slips Up

Andy Murray's chances of becoming the highest-ranked British player since ATP rankings began 36 years ago took a significant leap as he avenged himself upon Fernando Verdasco to reach the semi-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open.

Murray has to win the tournament to have a chance of climbing above Novak Djokovic into third place, but he was helped that his relatively comfortable 6-1, 6-2 victory today was preceded by a startling defeat for Rafael Nadal, whom the Scot had been seeded to meet in the semi-final. It was as if the opportunity created by the removal of the world No1 had concentrated Murray's mind.

He made a flying start for the second match a row, and in the interlude between sets, when Verdasco left the court to take a toilet break, Murray sat casually back in his chair murmuring along with the Coldplay tune Viva la Vida which was playing over the stadium's loudspeaker. By then, only 33 minutes into the contest, Murray was already in control against the man who had beaten him in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January, brilliantly containing any of Verdasco's big boomers and counter-attacking waspishly. "I don't look back too much on matches," claimed Murray before the quarter-final. "The last thing I will be thinking about here is the match in Australia. I just want to make a good start again."

He did better than that. Having taken the first five games in his victory over Viktor Troicki, he won the first four today, greatly enhancing his rhythm, confidence and self-belief. He closed out his opening service game with an ace; his first break came with four brilliant retrieves that frustrated Verdasco into error, and his second break came with a return of serve that hurtled back so fast that Verdasco did not have time to prepare for his follow-up ground stroke. And so, despite the interlude with which Verdasco sought to change the momentum, it continued.

At 3-0 the emotion of the match changed, Verdasco revealing his irritation by swinging round violently when he failed to get a first serve in, and then not trying for the ball when Murray again clouted the second serve back hard. The Argentine, who clinched the Davis Cup for his country two months ago, was now making too many errors to get back into the match, and although he had the trainer on to give treatment to his right leg, Murray was not distracted. The contest ended almost anti-climactically as Murray closed out his final service game as casually as if he might start humming another tune. He has now won 24 of his past 28 games.

In Nadal's match earlier, the world's most energetic player suffered a rare and dramatic physical decline as he slid to a startling three-hour defeat to Juan Martin Del Potro. Nadal led 3-0 and by two breaks of serve in the final set against the 20-year-old world No7 from Argentina and yet faded completely away by the end of a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3) loss.

In the later stages, amazingly, Nadal was doing little more than put the ball back and ended at the mercy of his hard-hitting opponent, who, but for his tension, might have won more quickly. At the fourth attempt however he closed out his first win against Nadal to earn a meeting with Murray. The Scot has won both their previous encounters.

The other semi-final will be between Djokovic, who was taken to the doctor feeling unwell after beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Wednesday, and Roger Federer, who admitted that his loss to Nadal in the Wimbledon final had been a long-term hurt to him that may have affected his form. However this seemed nothing to the emotional damage from which Roddick appeared to be suffering during his 1th loss in 19 matches to the holder of 13 Grand Slam titles. After a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 defeat, Roddick had a fit of rage in the tunnel leading out of the stadium, emptied the contents of his bag on the floor and smashed what looked like every single racket one after the other upon the concrete.