New world number two Andy Murray made tough work of his quarter final match against France’s Julien Benneteau as he continued on his way to the defence of his Cincinnati Masters title.

The sporting cliche that great players find a way to win even when they are playing badly could not be more evident in the first hour of Murray’s match today. The Scot played probably the worst set of tennis of his year so far as he dropped the first set 6-4 after being a break up.

He then found himself 2-0 down in the second set before an epic  53-shot rally saw Murray break back and go on to win 12 of the last 14 games eventually coming out 4-6 6-3 6-1.

The defending champion will now face world number 1 Roger Federer in Saturday’s semi-finals. After his win today Murray spoke to Sky Sports,

That unbelievable rally, 53 shots or something, that really changed the match for me, Physically he was struggling a little bit after that. I served terrible in the first set – six doubles. The ball was blowing all over the place. 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.

New dad Federer beat an injury struggling Lleyton Hewitt 6-3 6-4 and after his win he also spoke to Sky Sports,

I didn’t pay attention to his knee, I just thought he had not a very good day at the office. He made quite a few unusual mistakes for him. Maybe he was trying to go for more than he had to because of the knee, he was sort of obliged to.

Novak Djokovic beat Gilles Simon 6-4 7-5, with Rafael Nadal to face Tomas Berdych in the remaining quarter-final.

Andy Murray broke new ground once again as reaches the world number 2 spot for the first time in his short career. He was already the first ever Brit to reach world number 3 in the world after both Greg Rusedski and then Tim Henman peaked at number 4 in the world. He will now also be known as the Brit to reach the world number 2 spot.

Murray secured the number 2 spot last week in Montreal after reaching the final, he put even more distance between him and Rafael Nadal as he went on to win the title.

Murray and Federer have both prospered from Nadal’s injury that seen him miss Wimbledon (dropped 2000 points) and likely contribute to his loss in French Open. Murray’s  move up the rankings should not be overshadowed by this and his achievement is made even more significant when you consider that not for over 4 years has any other player than Roger Federer or Rafael occupied the top two spots.

Although Murray is defending champion at next weeks masters event in Cincinnati, he won’t be defending any points as he has already dropped those points due to the schedule change to accommodate the Olympics last year. Barring a first round knock out and Rafael Nadal winning the event Murray will be the Second seed at the US open.

Roger Federer is almost 2000 points ahead of Murray and looks in pole position to finish the year as world number 1. Murray or Nadal would really need to win the US Open to have any chance of snatching the world number 1 spot before then. If Murray was to beat Federer in the 2009 US final he would cut the gap to less than 500 points, making it a very real possibility.

Andy Murray claimed his 4th ATP 1000 Masters title as he completed a superb first week back in competition after losing last months Wimbledon semi final to Andy Roddick.

He needed to fight back from a set down to beat Juan Martin Del Potro in the final, the Argentine pushed Murray all the way in the first two sets but the 22-year-old Scot outlasted the world number six 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-1

This is Murray’s 13th career title and caps off an amazing week that will see him rise to world number 2 for the first time. He was already the first Briton to reach the number 3 spot and he will no go down as the first Brit to reach number 2. Can he make it to number 1?

He now heads to Cincinnati next week to defend the title he won last year. That tournament last year was a big through event for Murray, it was his first masters event win and he beat Novak Djokovic in the final for the 2nd time in as many weeks.

Murray’s victory today was far from straight forward and was made to really work hard for his win. Del Potro was playing in his first Masters 1000 final and for much of the match looked like winning, the match hinged on the second set tie break, which Murray managed to guts out, largely down to Murray’s superior fitness as he outlasted the 20-year-old in the hot conditions.

The first major tennis event since Wimbledon 2009 is about to get under at the Rogers Cup in Montreal.

Just as it was 6 weeks ago, 15 time grand slam winner Roger Federer is the bookmakers favorite to lift the title with Britain’s Andy Murray second favorite. You will get on average 8/5 on Federer winning and 16/5 on Murray

Last years Rogers Cup winner Rafael Nadal is the third favorite, this will be the Spaniards first event since he lost at the French Open 3 months ago. The average odds for Nadal to make a winning comeback is 8/1.

Decent outside bet – you can get 14/1 on Andy Roddick at Betfair or if you are looking for something even higher Nikolay Davydenko is 54/1 at Betfair and the Russian has been showing some decent form after recovering from injury which has hampered his first half of 2009. Since Wimbledon Davydenko won back to back titles in Hamburg and Umag.

If you are placing a bet on the Rogers Cup winner you should try Betfair as their odds are consistantly higher and when you sign up you get a free £25 bet.

Andy Murray will play his first match since losing to Andy Roddick in the semi finals of Wimbledon at the 2009 Rogers Cup in Montreal.

The Masters event which switches between Montreal and Toronto each year will begin today and Murray will start his campaign against either Yen-Hsun Lu or Jeremy Chardy.

Murray is drawn in Federer’s half the opposite half of Nadal, who Murray could potentially displace as world number 2 if results go his way. 

Murray reached the semi final of the event last year (played in Toronto) whilst Nadal won the event, those points though have already been removed as the 2008 rogers cup was held early to make way for the Beijing Olympics. At the end of the Week Nadal will lose his 800 points he gained at the Olympics, levaing just over a 200 point gap between the two.

Bookmakers have Murray second favorite to win the event with Federer as favorite. See a full list of Rogers Cup Winner Odds.