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Journalism of Courage
France8217;s Gilles Simon knocked world number one Rafael Nadal out of the Madrid Masters on Saturday after a thrilling 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 6 tussle to set up a final clash against Britain8217;s Andy Murray, who had earlier outgunned Roger Federer 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to avenge his defeat at the US Open.
Simon took almost 3-1/2 hours, saving 17 break points along the way, to record his first victory in three meetings against the Spaniard.
Murray showed flashes of form early on but Federer gave the 21-year-old no time to settle, forcing him into unforced errors to break midway through the first set.
Murray grew in confidence, however, and by the third set, the match had swung in his favour. Murray slammed 14 aces, 10 in the final set, but it was testament to Federer8217;s fearless style that the Swiss saved six break points before finally cracking at 5-5 when he struck a forehand long. The Scot brought up match point with a huge cross-court forehand and sealed his third victory over Federer when his opponent netted a forehand. Reuters
Bhupathi-Knowles in semis
Bhupathi and Mark Knowles defeated Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle 6-3, 7-5 to storm into the doubles semi-finals. The fourth seeded Indo-Bahamian pair took one hour and 15 minutes to beat the sixth seeded Swede-Austrian duo. They next face the fifth seeded pair of Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe, who beat top seeds Mike and Bob Byran 6-4, 6-4 in their quarter-final match. Meanwhile, in the quarter-finals of the 50,000 Calabasas Challenger event in California, USA, Prakash Amritraj put up a brave fight before going out to top seed Vincent Spadea 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 4.
