WORLD number two Andy Murray found an extra gear when it mattered to beat Davis Cup team-mate Kyle Edmund 7-6 (11/9) 6-2 in the quarter-finals of the China Open.
Murray edged a tight first set in a tie-break and trailed 2-0 early in the second, but reeled off six games in a row to set up a semi-final clash with Spain's David Ferrer.
The 29-year-old, who is the top seed in Beijing following the withdrawal of world number one Novak Djokovic, had coasted through his second-round contest against Russian Andrey Kuznetsov, dropping just three games in a match lasting 76 minutes.
But he needed almost as long simply to win the first set against compatriot Edmund, who looked well worthy of his move into the world's top 50 for the first time in his career when the rankings are updated on Monday.
Murray won 100 per cent of points behind his first serve in the first set but was unable to convert his only break - and set - point in the 10th game, Edmund producing an excellent forehand winner with his opponent at the net.
Edmund then surged into a 5-2 lead in the tie-break but was unable to find the killer blow before Murray finally won it 11-9 with another powerful first serve.
After saving a break point in the first game of the second set, Edmund was gifted a 2-0 lead thanks to a double fault from Murray, but failed to consolidate the break despite being 40-15 ahead on his serve.
And although he had to save three break points in the seventh game, Murray was in no mood to take his foot off the gas and broke Edmund twice more to seal his place in the last four.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here