Former world number one Roger Federer produced some magical moments, but that wasn't enough to prevent a fourth loss in his last five matches to the fast-improving Andy Murray on Friday.
In the semi-finals of the Capitala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition shootout being played at the Zayed Sports City tennis stadium, Scotsman Murray prevailed in three sets 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6).
The world number four next takes on the top-ranked player in the world, Rafael Nadal in the final after the Spaniard's explosive powerplay proved to hot for Russian world number five Nikolay Davydenko to handle. Nadal won 6-2, 6-3.
The winner of the Nadal-Murray final takes home the entire purse of $250,000 in the shootout tournament.
Federer began well, racing to 3-0 in the first set. Murray broke back in the fifth game when the Swiss maestro twice failed to pull of easy drop shots on the net. A double fault by Murray on break point in the 10th game sealed the set for the 13-time Grand Slam champion.
Federer struggled at the net and with his forehand shots in the second set, which was easily won by Murray, who then raced to a 4-1 lead in the third.
It was then that Federer turned on his magic. Suddenly, it looked like he could do no wrong. Some lethal serves and blistering returns saw him win the next four games in nine minutes.
However, Murray held on to his serve in the 10th game and pushed the set into a tie-breaker, where several Federer unforced errors gave him three match points at 6-3.
The Swiss star saved all three match points, but two more unforced errors ensured the result in favour of the Scot.
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