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Thailand title one victory away for Murray

Andy Murray has won his last eight encounters against world No. 12 Gilles Simon © PA Photos

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Andy Murray has the chance to earn a maiden Thailand Open title after he once again proved to be Gilles Simon's nemesis in Saturday's semi-final.

Murray's first ever appearance in an ATP Tour final came at the Bangkok event back in 2005, when he was beaten by Roger Federer. Six years on he has the chance to go one better, thanks to a comfortable 6-2 3-6 6-2 triumph over world No. 12 Simon.

The British No. 1 is increasingly becoming Simon's nightmare opponent, having now won the last eight matches between the two players. Saturday's win was his fourth of the year over the Frenchman, against whom he has dropped just one set in the eight encounters since Simon last emerged victorious.

Murray broke with his first opportunity against the third seed, and he flexed his muscles with a fine variety of ground strokes to break again in a one-sided opener. Simon was afforded just four points on the Murray serve as the Scot stormed into the lead.

All of Simon's victories this week have come in three sets though, and he did not panic, penetrating the Murray serve for the first time to move into a 3-0 advantage in the second set. The pair then exchanged further breaks as Simon earned the right to serve for parity in the match, which he accepted with the minimum of fuss.

Now it was Murray swimming in unchartered territory, having won both his previous matches in straight sets this week, but he gathered his composure to break the first Simon service game of the decider. That proved the decisive moment as he closed out the match with one further break, adding more rankings points in his pursuit of Federer's world No. 3 spot.

Murray's rival in the final will be the surprise figure of Donald Young, who came from behind to beat second seed Gael Monfils 4-6 7-6(5) 7-6(5). In a match that saw Monfils serve 13 more aces than his opponent and break five times to four, it was Young who still came out on top in an excellent contest.

A tight first set belonged to Monfils as he denied his foe a single chance to penetrate his serve, breaking once himself to move ahead. However, Young began to get more of a look at the Monfils delivery as he settled into the match, sharing four breaks with the world No. 9 before snatching the breaker.

Monfils continued to look the superior player, winning more points than his rival in the decider, but he could not match the angles found by Young, who once again clinched the breaker to progress to Sunday's final.

At the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur, third seed Janko Tipsarevic will play Marcos Baghdatis in the final after they beat Kei Nishikori and Viktor Troicki respectively.

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