Tipsarevic cruises past Murray in Abu Dhabi

Olympic Games and US Open champion Andy Murray saw his Mubadala World Tennis Championship campaign last just 84 minutes on Thursday when he slumped to a 6-3, 6-4 defeat to Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic. Tipsarevic, the world number nine, will now face Spain's Nicolas Almagro, who replaced Rafael Nadal in the three-day exhibition tournament, in Friday's semi-finals. "I hit the ball pretty well, it was just the execution of some of my shots wasn't perfect, but that's pretty normal when you have not played a match for a while," said world number three Murray. Tipsarevic added: "I am happy with my game. I know it is an exhibition game but to play a Grand Slam champion and an Olympic Games gold medal winner and win, I am just delighted. "I hope to get two more victories and that would be great going into the Australian Open." David Ferrer also reached the semi-finals with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic. Ferrer will tackle world number one Novak Djokovic on Friday for a place in Saturday's final.