Murray and Roddick move closer to final showdown

By Pritha Sarkar

LONDON (Reuters) - Andy Murray took another step closer to becoming the first British champion at Queen's Club for more than 70 years when he beat American Mardy Fish 7-5 6-3 to reach the semi-finals on Friday.

Andy Roddick made sure he stayed in the hunt to set up a final date with Murray. The American second seed saw a lot of aces whizz by but kept his wits to eke out a 7-6 7-6 win over fellow big server Ivo Karlovic of Croatia.

Top seed Murray barely put a foot wrong in the opening set as he dropped only three points on serve and kept Fish on his toes with his crafty angles, subtle spins and thundering groundstrokes.

Fish kept pace until 5-5 but then faced three breakpoints. The world number 25 hung on for the first two but could only watch in horror as his volley clipped the net and rolled back on to his side of the court on the third.

Within minutes Murray had moved to set point but Fish had him on the run and was poised to take the Scot to deuce, only to misjudge an easy smash and hand Murray the set.

A delectable lob helped Murray to break Fish for 4-3 in the second set and the British number one eased to victory.

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