Murray secures final spot

8:00pm Saturday 25th October 2008

Defending champion Andy Murray breezed into the final of the St Petersburg Open with a 6-0 6-3 victory over Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.

He will next face Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan, ranked 150th in the world, after he overcame Romanian Victor Hanescu in their last-four encounter.

Murray, who reached the US Open final in September, is bidding to win his fifth title of the year.

After his tough quarter-final win over Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, Murray showed no signs of fatigue as he easily took the first set 6-0.

Having held serve in the first game of the second set, Murray broke world number 16 Verdasco to immediately seize the advantage.

He then saved a break point but Verdasco took his next chance before holding to level at 2-2.

The set continued with serve until the eighth game.

Unforced errors and double-faults were undermining Verdasco's fightback, and a careless shot on break point allowed Murray to take a 5-3 lead.

And after two match points, the Scot wrapped up victory in one hour and 14 minutes.