Murray makes semi-finals

Andy Murray completed one of the most remarkable victories of his young career to reach the semi-finals of the St Petersburg Open.

Needing to win the tournament to stand any chance of qualifying for the season-ending Masters Cup, the 20-year-old repeatedly appeared on the brink of defeat against Russia's Dmitry Tursunov but battled back for a 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 win.

The victory earned Murray - who has been in a rich vein of form recently - his seventh semi-final of the year.

However, Tursunov appeared to have the measure of the Scot from the start of the match.

Murray was forced to save four break points in his opening three service games but his luck eventually ran out as he fell 4-2 behind.

He hit back with his only break point of the set but a first-serve percentage of 41% proved his Achilles heel and Tursunov broke again before serving out the set.

Murray improved in the second set but was still struggling to hold on to his serve.

He saved break point four times to take the set to a tie-break where, suddenly, he found his form and took the tie-break 7-2 to level.

The deciding set looked like being a re-run of the first when Tursunov manufactured three break points on the Murray serve in game six.

But this time the Scot held before breaking the Russian with the second of just three break points he created in the entire match before eventually serving out to win.