Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko lived up to their world rankings and advanced to the semifinals of the Capitala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition shootout, here on Thursday. Scotland's world number four Andy Murray and Russian world number five Nikolay Davydenko made a perfect start to the 2009 season with fluent wins at the Zayed Sports City tennis stadium over their respective American rivals, number 10 James Blake and number eight Andy Roddick. Displaying a stunning array of groundstrokes from the baseline, Murray dominated Blake in his 6-2, 6-2 win, while Davydenko looked much sharper than Roddick in a 6-4, 6-4 result. The Russian next meets world number one Rafael Nadal, while Murray will take on the second-ranked Roger Federer. The knockout tournament is worth $250,000 to the winner Saturday evening. Murray was never in trouble against Blake, breaking him twice in each set and wrapping up the match in less than an hour. The Scot, who beat Federer three times in 2008 in four matches, said: “I was playing James for the first time in three years and I expected it to be a tough match, but I played much better than I expected to. This is the first match of the year and I am delighted with how I played. “I am sure I will have a fun match with Roger. I did quite well against him last year, but this is a new season. With all the top players here, this is a great preparation for the Australian Open later this month.” Roddick had only one break point against Davydenko in the entire match, which he failed to convert. His normally reliable first serve was also a bit off target, but the American was not too worried about the loss. French eye Hopman win French pair Alize Cornet and Gilles Simon are tipped to end their country's long and frustrating drought in the mixed-team Hopman Cup starting in Perth on Saturday. The event was thrown wide open when double Hopman Cup winner Serena Williams last month withdrew from the top-seeded US team, replaced by 836th-ranked Meghann Shaughnessy, who will play alongside world number 10 James Blake. Local pundits have installed the French pair as favorites among the eight nations competing in the Perth event. Seeded third behind the US and Russia, their combined ranking of 23 is the highest in the tournament.
