Former winner Andy Murray and third seed David Ferrer will meet in the Miami Masters decider after both rallied from opening set losses on Friday to win their semi-finals.
Murray lost the opening set in a tiebreaker before beating Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-7 (7-9) 6-1 6-2 while Spaniard Ferrer ended German veteran Tommy Haas’s giant-killing run 4-6 6-2 6-3.
“I could have made it easier on myself,” Murray said. “I could have played a better game when I was serving for the first set, but I didn’t.”
Murray, the 2009 champion and last year’s runner-up, dropped his first set of the tournament but quickly made amends and dominated the final two sets to reach his third Miami final.
The Scot has beaten Ferrer in six out of 11 career matches, including five of the past seven.
Ferrer has only beaten Murray once on a non-clay surface and that was at the World Tour Finals in 2011.
“It is going to be a tough match. He is an unbelievable competitor,” Murray said. “We train a lot together so we know each other’s games well so there should be a lot of long rallies.”
Gasquet, who has won twice already this year but was hampered by a right foot problem in this one, was trying to become the first Frenchman to capture the Miami title.
Gasquet received treatment from the trainer during the break between the second and third set for a problem with his right ankle.
Ferrer twice rallied from a break down in the third set to end the run of 15th-seeded Haas, who stunned world No.1 Novak Djokovic in the fourth round.
The first semi-final of the day was a clash of veterans looking for early birthday presents. Haas turns 35 on Wednesday and Ferrer is approaching his 31st birthday on Tuesday.
Haas had backed up his upset of Djokovic with a quarter-final win over Gilles Simon, and he got off to a fast start against Ferrer.
The Spaniard looked out of sorts as Haas broke him at love for a 3-2 lead in the opening set, and the German broke him again for a 5-2 lead.
Ferrer managed to cut down on his errors in the second set, breaking Haas twice to force a deciding third set.
