Tennis: Andy Murray cruises to Sony Open semi-final in Miami

Andy Murray advanced to the semi-finals of the Sony Open in Miami with a comfortable straight-sets victory over Marin Cilic. Murray had a rough start and lost his opening service game but fought back admirably to take the opening set 6-4 before cruising through the second and winning it 6-3. Murray is the highest seed left in the tournament and will play Richard Gasquet who surprisingly defeated fourth seed Tomas Berdych in straight sets. Veteran German Tommy Haas will take on Spaniard David Ferrer in the other semi-final. Murray, who won the Miami title in 2009 and lost to Novak Djokovic in last year's final, will move past Roger Federer to go second in the world rankings if he wins the Florida tournament. The US Open champion was not very effective though, taking just six of the 18 break points he created. But his opponent made no less than 37 unforced errors in a match that lasted one hour and 42 minutes. The Scottish player threw away four break pointsin the opening game and then allowed Cilic to break his serve and take a 2-0 lead. Both players continued to struggle on their own serve and two more breaks followed but Murray stepped it up at 4-4, broke and them managed to serve out the set. The second set had a much better start for Murray as he clinched a break right away, then the two traded breaks taking the score to 5-3. Murray squandered a 40-0 lead in the following game, on Cilic's serve, then threw away three more match points before finally wrapping it up. "I think it was a very good match after the first few games, from my side," said Murray. "Obviously I had 0-40 in the first game, didn't get it and went a break behind but every time I got broken, I think I broke straight back. I came back well from the setbacks and used good variation to keep him off-balance. It was a tough match, it was hot and we had some long points, long games, and I'm glad I came through in two sets." Andy Murray is now the favourite to win the tournament at Bet365, he is 1/2 to win it while David Ferrer, his most likely opponent in the final, is 7/2.