The first of two semi finals on Saturday at the ATP Finals will be between the winner of Group Boris Becker, Roger Federer, …
Like David Goffin from the other group, Jack Sock is something of a surprise semi finalist despite his impressive run…
British number one Andy Murray has split with coach Ivan Lendl for a second time by “mutual agreement”.
The Scot won Wimbledon, the US Open and Olympic gold during two years with Lendl from 2012 to 2014.
Murray was then coached by Amelie Mauresmo before turning back to Lendl in 2016, winning his second Wimbledon title, a second Olympic gold and becoming world number one that year.
“I’m thankful to Ivan for his help and guidance over the years,” Murray said.
“We’ve had great success and learned a lot as a team. My focus now is on getting ready for Australia with the team I have in place and getting back to competing.”
Former world number one and eight-time Grand Slam winner Lendl, 57, added: “I wish Andy well going forward. We had a great run and a lot of fun.”
Murray has been recovering from a hip injury, and his last competitive match was a Wimbledon quarter-final defeat by Sam Querrey in July.
He has since slipped to 16th in the latest world rankings, but earlier this month he played in a charity match against Roger Federer.
After losing 6-3 3-6 10-6, Murray said he “hoped” to return to competition at the Brisbane International in January.
The tournament is held two weeks before the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of 2018, which gets under way on 15 January.
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller
Murray and Lendl have spent very little time in each other’s company this season as injury has forced the former world number one to spend so much time on the sidelines.
But Lendl’s return – to work alongside Jamie Delgado – at The Queen’s Club in June of last year was the spark for an extraordinary run of success.
Murray won eight tournaments between June and November, including Wimbledon and the Rio Olympics, and won the last five events he entered to pip Novak Djokovic to the year-end number one position.
The partnership fizzled out first time around as Murray was returning from back surgery, and there is a clear parallel three-and-a-half-years on.
Finding a figure of Lendl’s stature to supplement the valuable work of Delgado may not be of pressing concern to Murray right now.
First and foremost he craves fitness, and the chance to be able to compete for the sport’s major prizes once again.
Britain’s Jamie Murray and Brazil’s Bruno Soares made it through to the semi-finals with victory over top seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo at the ATP Finals in London.
Fourth seeds Murray and Soares knew that only a win would do against a pair who had already qualified, and they prevailed 6-2 6-4 in 73 minutes.
They will play Henri Kontinen and John Peers at 18:00 GMT on Saturday.
Earlier, Kubot and Melo will face Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus at 14:00.
Murray had felt a slight back issue in his previous match, but there was no sign of it as he and Soares raced into a 5-0 lead and had three points for a love set, only to let a 40-0 lead slip.
Any glimmer of resistance was snuffed out when Brazilian Melo netted a volley to drop serve, and with it the set, in game eight.
An early break in the second set was handed back by a Murray double fault, and a 3-0 lead threatened to turn into a deficit when they faced three break points at 3-3.
Murray held firm, however, clenching his fist after saving the third with a smash, and a loose Melo service game saw the contest end when Poland’s Kubot sent a volley over the baseline.
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Watch five best shots as Belgian seventh seed David Goffin completes the semi-final line-up at the ATP Finals with victory over Austrian fourth seed Dominic Thiem.
| ATP Finals | |
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| Venue: The 02 Arena, London Dates: 12-19 November | |
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Belgian seventh seed David Goffin completed the semi-final line-up at the ATP Finals with victory over Austrian fourth seed Dominic Thiem in London.
Goffin won 6-4 6-1 to secure second place in the Pete Sampras Group and set up a semi-final against Roger Federer at 14:00 GMT on Saturday.
“It will be a tough match, so nice to play a semi against him,” said Goffin.
Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov will face American Jack Sock in Saturday’s other last-four contest at 20:00.
Dimitrov will play Pablo Carreno Busta in the last of the round-robin matches at 20:00 on Friday, but with the qualification scenario settled they are playing for 200 ranking points and the £145,000 prize money for a match win.
Fourth seed Thiem produced a desperately disappointing performance with the prize of a semi-final place at the season finale on offer.
He began in suitably focused fashion, winning a punishing 32-stroke rally on his way to establishing a 3-0 lead, but Goffin would win 12 of the next 14 games.
A double-fault from the Austrian handed the break back in game five, one of 15 straight points Thiem conceded as he started to spray errors from the baseline.
There was a chance to re-establish himself in the set with Goffin serving for it at 30-30, but Thiem leaked a forehand pass wide and the set was gone when Goffin slammed a forehand winner down the line.
After a brief delay for attention to a bloodied knee, Thiem continued to struggle badly in the second set.
By the time he fired a backhand wide to miss a third break point at 4-1 down, he had racked up 22 unforced errors.
Goffin remained steady and patient, coming through that game in 11 minutes for a 5-1 lead and closing out the victory with a backhand winner after an unexpectedly swift 71 minutes.
“It was a pity to play against Dominic, he is such a good friend and a nice guy, it’s never easy to play against a friend,” said Goffin.
“It was tough, I was focused, I knew I had to stay calm and be ready for a tough battle. At the end I was happy with the way I managed the match.”
It was an impressive response from the Belgian, who beat a struggling Rafael Nadal in his opening match before taking just two games against a rampant Dimitrov.
“After the first match against Rafael I wasted so much energy, I was not ready for Grigor, but I had a good rest yesterday and was ready for today, and I hope I can do the same for the semi-finals,” added Goffin.
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