Andy Murray will play Kei Nishikori in the last four of the Madrid Open after the Japanese comfortably beat David Ferrer in their semi-final this evening.
The world number five recorded a 6-4 6-2 victory in an hour and 14 minutes to set up a meeting with the British number one, who beat Milos Raonic earlier on Friday.
Nishikori dropped serve in the opening game of the match but broke back immediately and took control with a further break in game seven.
He then saved two break points when serving out for the first set, but could not do the same early in the second as Ferrer responded immediately to losing his own serve.
Both players were struggling to assert their dominance before Nishikori broke Ferrer twice more during a winning run of four successive games.
Ferrer held to love to stop the rot, but could not stop the US Open finalist from closing out a straight-sets win.
Joe Fish
