 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2005 |
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| 02 Jun 2005 - Roland Garros, Paris - Eleanor Preston | |
| Murray marches on |
Boys’ top seed Andrew Murray stayed on course for a second consecutive junior grand slam title by storming through to the semi-finals of the Roland Garros. Murray is the reigning junior US Open champion and is unbeaten in his last ten junior grand slam matches. The 18-year-old is now the only seed left in the boys’ draw and, after a 6-4, 6-2 win over accomplished Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, he remains the favourite for the Roland Garros boys’ title.
“Today was by far my toughest match. I knew it was going to be really difficult,” said Murray, who plays Croatia’s Marin Cilic in the semi-finals. “He’s definitely the highest ranked in the pros, and he's been playing really well the last couple of months. He’s got an ATP ranking of about 440; he's won three senior tournaments this year and a couple of semifinals. I played very well, so I'm pretty happy. I was quite happy the way I played in the first set, except the way I was serving. I think that helped me a little bit in the second set, because he had so many chances on my serve that when I managed to get the first set, his head went down.”
Cilic, who isn’t seeded at Roland Garros, beat the Ukraine’s Sergei Bubka 7-6, 6-2 in his quarter-final. “I practiced with him the day before the tournament started, and that was the first time I saw him,” said Murray. “I think if I play like I did today, I should win pretty comfortably.”
Lukas Lacko of Slovakia and Antal Van der Duim of the Netherlands will play the other boys’ semi-final after Lacko knocked out American Easter Bowl champion Sam Querrey 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 and Van der Duim ended Alexandr Dolgopolov’s run with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over the Ukrainian.
Cilic will be full of confidence despite the form Murray is in. Having set himself a goal of reaching the last four of a grand slam for the first time in his junior career, the 16-year-old couldn’t have been happier about beating Bubka, despite the fact that the Ukrainian is one of his closest friends.
“It was a very big victory for me because it was a tough match,” said Cilic. “This is my first Roland Garros and I really wanted to make the semis here. At the beginning of my match against Sergei I was a bit nervous about that but I soon forgot about my nerves and stayed calm. Even though I reached my goal here I still want to go further. You always have to want to win because once you get there a semi-final isn’t enough.”
All four of the girls’ semi-finalists would concur, not least unseeded Japanese 15-year-old Ayumi Morita, who has proved to be the surprise package of the girls’ draw. Morita, who is making her debut at Roland Garros, only made it as far as the fourth round in her only previous grand slam, this year’s Australian Open.
Morita plays Raluca-Ioana Olaru in the last four after the Romanian eased past Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky 6-2, 6-3.
Hungary’s Agnes Szavay will take on Russian Alisa Kleybanova in Friday’s other girls’ semi-final. Szavay scored an efficient 6-1, 6-3 victory over Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina, while Kleybanova eased past France’s Youlia Fedossova 6-4, 6-3.
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