The New Nation - Internet Edition

BBC Online

Andy Murray continued his bid for a maiden grass-court title with victory over Mardy Fish in the quarter-finals of the Aegon Championships at Queen's.

The 22-year-old top seed beat his American opponent 7-5 6-3 and will meet Juan Carlos Ferrero in the semi-finals.

British number one Murray broke the Fish serve three times and wrapped up his win in one hour and 10 minutes.

In the remaining two quarter-finals, Ivo Karlovic takes on Andy Roddick and James Blake faces Mikhail Youzhny.

Having produced a commanding display to dispose of Fish, Murray will be full of confidence going into his semi-final against former world number one Ferrero.

The 29-year-old Spaniard, ranked number 90 in the world, overcame Steve Darcis of Belgium 4-6 6-3 6-4.

Murray and Ferrero have never met before but, if he continues to perform at the level he has done all week, the Scot should have few problems reaching the final.

In an near-faultless performance against Fidh, he sent down 11 aces to his opponent's nine, made 69% of first serves won 30 of 31 (97%) points contested on his first serve.

Murray, bidding to become the first British champion at Queen's since Bunny Austin in 1938, went 0-30 up in game one before Fish, ranked number eight in the world, fought back to hold serve with an ace.

But the tournament favourite produced a stunning array of aces to level the scores at 1-1 and the players exchanges service holds until game 11.

Murray set the break up by racing to 0-40 with an outstanding cross-court backhand passing shot and then an even better version off the forehand side.

Fish pulled it back to 30-40 before Murray seized the chance by forcing the big-serving right-hander to fire a return into the net.

A wild forehand smash from Fish gave Murray the opening set and the Briton continued to dominate in the second.

Murray seemed content to wait for his chance to pounce and that arrived in game seven when he took his second break point of the game with a powerful backhand return.

A ruthless service game put Murray 5-3 ahead and the Scot then broke with a cross-court volley to seal his passage to the last four.