Andy Murray is ranked 4 in the world.  David Ferrer is ranked 5 in the world.  You would think the two might be a bit closer in skill, but they do call the “top 4″ for a reason.  Ferrer is as tough a fighter as you’ll ever see, but he is a bit like Justine Henin.  Ferrer is much shorter than anyone in the top 4 at maybe 5’9” (175 cm).  This means he relies on his forehand and his speed to win.  Against nearly everyone else, this is good enough.  But the top 4 have enough pace, either off the serve or off the ground, that Ferrer struggles.

Murray, who has a decent first serve, was not hitting many first serves in, but Murray tends to treat the first serve as something he ought to win free points on.  He doesn’t seem to mind, at least not too greatly, hitting a second serve even if most experts agree it’s something of a weakness.  As long as he earns free points off the first, then the first serves its purpose.

Ferrer held his first serve of the match, but then Murray proceeded to break him two times in a row.  Part of that was Murray’s pace off the ground, and part of it was Ferrer unable to keep the balls in play.  Much like his previous match, Ferrer seemed to struggle with making his opponents play lots of shots.  Ferrer couldn’t solve the riddle of Murray’s first serve and he seemed to struggle some with Murray’s pace off the ground.

After Murray took the first set 6-2, he opened the second set with a break.  Although he continued to pressure Ferrer on his serve, Ferrer began to play better and hold serve.  However, as the second set was winding its way to the end, Ferrer had to serve at 3-5 to stay in the match.  Murray upped the pace off the ground and got to a 0-40 lead.  On Ferrer’s last serve, Murray hit a return up the line and ended the match with yet another break and took it 6-3.

Murray was able to occasionally use his down-the-line backhand to hit winners.  This is the one shot that separates Djokovic from Murray.  While Djokovic loves hitting down-the-line, Murray has always seemed more hesitant to hit the ball, but he’s trying to add it to his game realizing how important this shot it to give his opponents something to think about especially given how confident Murray is hitting the crosscourt backhand.  Once he has a reliable down-the-line backhand, then he’ll really scare opponents who will wonder which way his backhand is going.

The last time Murray played Nadal was the US Open.  Murray struggled with keeping shots in play.  The one thing he’ll be concerned about is playing good return games.  If Nadal is holding easily, then Murray will struggle with holding his own serve.  Murray went for big shots against Nadal in New York but missed a few too many times.  Although he claimed one set, he couldn’t keep hitting big shot after big shot.  Nadal isn’t playing spectacular, but he is playing solid tennis.  Murray, by contrast, is playing pretty good, at least for Murray, so he has a fair shot at taking Nadal down.

Nadal is likely to worry more about Shanghai than Tokyo, but obviously, every title is nice.

Marin Cilic defeated countryman, Ivan Ljubicic, 6-4, 6-3, in one of the two Beijing semifinals.  Tomas Berdych has been playing amazing tennis.  He beat Verdasco by taking 12 games in a row after being broken in the initial game.  Berdych will play Tsonga in what promises to be a hard hitting game.