Tennis:A merciless Andy Murray subjected Australia's Bernard Tomic to a 6-3 6-2 thrashing today to deflate local fans and set up an intriguing final with Alexandr Dolgopolov at the Brisbane International. Murray had ended Dolgopolov's barnstorming run to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open last year and appears in fine fettle for the re-match.
After trading baseline blows for the opening games at the Pat Rafter Arena, Murray pounced at 4-3 in the first set to break his 19-year-old opponent, then raced to a 2-0 lead in the second. Tomic took a medical time-out at 2-1 to have his foot strapped but the break did little to stall Murray's momentum as the Briton wrapped up the match in 69 minutes, bullying his young opponent with strong serving and blasting winners from all angles.
"He started very well but I managed to get into a lot of long rallies at the end of the first set and got through," Murray said after the match. "I'm just moving so much better. It's such a huge part of my game so when I move well the rest of my game goes well and made it hard for Bernard to hit lots of clean winners."
Murray will meet Dolgopolov after the Ukrainian ground down Gilles Simon 6-3 6-4 in the first semi-final. Dolgopolov, who pushed Murray to four sets in a tension-charged quarter-final at Melbourne Park last year, also showed promising form, breaking Simon twice to wrap up the first set comfortably before holding him off in the tighter second set.