The ATP Virtual Madrid Open has reached the semi-finals stage as Andy Murray and Stefanos Tsitsipas seem on collision course to meet in the final.
With four superb displays on Wednesday, both Murray and Tsitsipas put in dominating performances as they took care of Alexander Zverev and David Ferrer respectively.
Let’s dive into the entertaining Esports matches as they took place, with the quarter-finals needing a regular set to win. It’s first to six games as long as you win by two. New balls, please.
Andy Murray 6-1 Alexander Zverev
Another comprehensive victory saw Andy Murray march on toward the business end of the tournament in fine form.
As we said yesterday, “Murray, somehow available at 11/4 in a SkyBet promotion from general odds of 9/4, has to be backed”. That’s an understatement. Murray wiped the floor with the unfortunate Zverev, who was another smiling adversary like Nadal in Murray’s group who had no chance from the first serve.
Asked after the game about his ability to beat Zverev, Murray played up the trash-talk in bantering with his latest victim.
“Everyone’s got their excuses,” Murray said with a grin like The Joker. “I’m just much better than them.”
Looking at his complete thrashing of Zverev, we have to agree. Available at 11/4 for about 10 minutes yesterday, the best price available on Murray to win the event outright is now 10/11. Odds-against to odds-on in 24 hours – now that stings.
Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2 David Ferrer
Lining up as the most likely contender to prevent Murray steamrolling his way to victory is Greek youngster Stefanos Tsitsipas, who is in the other side of the draw to Murray and made light work of former passionate gamer David Ferrer.
Ferrer actually held pace with Tsitsipas for the opening four games, but thereafter, the Greek player got away from him. At the death, it was purely a case of being able to consistently find the corners, something he’ll definitely have to do if he gets the chance to take on Murray.
Having won 15 games to date in the competition, Tsitsipas lost just two of them. Whichever way you slice that stat, it looks great on the plate.
Diego Schwartzman 6-3 Fabio Fognini
Mocked by Murray as “terrible”, Diego Schwartzman seems determined to prove that rather damning statement to be wrong. He made light work of Italian player Fabio Fognini in the quarter-finals, although how Fognini got that far remains a mystery.
Fognini’s attitude to playing Schwartzman was mostly awful, lounging on his sofa, reading his mobile phone and looking around in a distracted fashion so often you’d think a hundred postman took it in turns to knock at his door for a signature.
Schwartzman will have to improve a lot in the semi-finals, but, as they say, ‘you can only beat what’s in front of you’. Fabio Fognini was largely swept aside in a poor-quality tie.
David Goffin 6-0 Benoit Paire
David Goffin summarily dismissed Frenchman Benoit Paire as he ‘bagelled’ the lackluster group runner-up to Murray. Goffin darted about the court like he had a plane to catch, which in the current climate would obviously be impossible.
Paire was polite, declaring Goffin now his “favorite to win, by far”, but in all honesty, Goffin was as good as Paire was bad. And Paire was terrible.
The odds for the outright winner have shortened dramatically in terms of Andy Murray (10/11) while Stefanos Tsitsipas (13/8) remains a worry for the bookies as he will avoid Murray until the final. Diego Schwartzman is the outsider at 9/1, while David Goffin is available at 7/1 for anyone who doesn’t believe Benoit Paire was possibly the worst quarter-finalist in all sporting history.
We’ll have a full report from the semi-finals and final of the Virtual Madrid Open next week right here on Calvin Ayre.
Semi-finals:
Andy Murray (1/6) vs. Diego Schwartzman (7/2)
Stefanos Tsitsipas (2/7) vs. David Goffin (5/2)
