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ATP Shenzhen Open: Andy Murray battles past Juan Monaco to reach final

Andy Murray reached his first final since winning Wimbledon last year after battling past Juan Monaco 2-6 6-3 6-0 at the ATP Shenzhen Open in China.

Murray, who is ranked 11th in the world, also boosted his bid to qualify for November's ATP World Tour Finals with only the top eight players guaranteed to qualify.

He will now take on world No 22 Tommy Robredo from Spain in Sunday's title match.

The Scot needs to pick up points to make the season's finale in London and he reached his first ATP final of the year despite a rather disjointed display.

Brutal conditions

After losing the opening set and out of sorts Murray managed to fight back in brutal conditions to take charge of the next and win nine games in a row to defeat the disheartened world No 97 from Argentina.

I found it very tough in the sun - it's extremely hot and humid and I'm not used to that where I come from.
Andy Murray

The second seed will now be aiming to secure his 29th career title when he goes up against 32-year-old fourth seed Robredo who beat Santiago Giraldo with a straightforward 6-1 6-4 in the other semi-final.

Murray was delighted reach his first final in 15 months and said: "The turning point was when we were 3-3 in the second set, but before that he was dominating the match.

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"I found it very tough in the sun - it's extremely hot and humid and I'm not used to that where I come from. I spend a lot of time in England, it's pretty cold there most of the time - but I came through."

Looking to the final, Murray said: "It'll be a very tough match. Tommy's a very experienced player. He's played some very good tennis this year.

"He beat (Novak) Djokovic a few weeks ago in Cincinnati and he's always a very difficult player to beat so I'll need to play a good match if I want to win."

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