Murray moves ahead to Brisbane semifinals

Top-seeded Andy Murray was a straight-set winner Friday in quarterfinal action of the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Australia. Murray, who battled through long three-set matches in the first two rounds in Brisbane, dispatched Marcos Baghdatis 6-2, 6-2 in 66 minutes. Murray saved the only two break points he faced and took 69 percent of the points on serve. He converted all four of his break opportunities in evening his career mark versus Baghdatis to 3-3. Baghdatis was unable to solve Murray's first serve. Murray won 84 percent of the points when his first serve was in. No. 8-seeded Bernard Tomic earned a semifinal slot opposite Murray with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) win over Denis Istomin. There was only one break point in the match and it won the first set for Tomic. Saturday will mark the first ATP-level semifinal for Tomic. He's never before played Murray, who owns 21 ATP championships. The other semifinal, which was determined Thursday, has second-seeded Gilles Simon going against No. 3-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov. Simon was a straight-set winner in the only previous match against Dolgopolov. That was an early 2011 match in Sydney.