Murray: Conditions were tricky

Defending champion Andy Murray will face world number one Roger Federer in the Cincinnati Masters semi-finals knowing there is room for improvement following his hard-fought last-eight win over Julien Benneteau.

The Scot was an overwhelming favourite heading into Friday night's tie, but found himself staring at a shock exit when he conceded his first set of the week. However, the world number two responded brilliantly and went on to register a 4-6 6-3 6-1 success.

"I served terrible in the first set - six doubles. The ball was blowing all over the place," Murray told Sky Sports Xtra.

"He obviously played well. It was tricky conditions. I was shanking a lot of balls at the start.

"I was hitting the ball really clean from the back of the court but leaving a lot of balls short so I ended up doing a lot of running, which wasn't really the plan going into the match."

Federer, who defeated Lleyton Hewitt 6-3 6-4 in their quarter-final, insists the fact Murray is now only one place below him in the rankings will have no bearing on the match.

"I try to beat him like I try to beat every other player," he said. "The rankings for me are secondary.

"You try to play the tournament, not the rankings. If you think about the rankings, which you sometimes tend to do when you're young and up and coming, you think, 'oh my God, I've got points to defend here' and you can't play freely. I'm way past that point."