Novak Djokovic held onto his unbeaten record in 2011 after scraping past Andy Murray in three sets at the Rome Masters.
British number one falls short in final set tie-break
Novak Djokovic held onto his unbeaten record in 2011 after scraping past Andy Murray in a final set tie-break at the Rome Masters.
The Serbian's perfect 35-match winning streak this year looked to be coming to an end in the decider but he came through to claim a 6-1 3-6 7-6 win.
Murray served for the match at 5-4 up but could not close out the contest and Djokovic went on to dominate the breaker.
The world number two will now face Rafael Nadal in the final of the clay-court event as he chases a fourth straight win over the Spaniard.
Murray may have feared the worst at the start of the match as Djokovic raced into a 2-0 lead in the first set, but he got the break straight back in the third game.
The match once again swung towards the second seed as he broke Murray to love to go two games up and then dominated the rest of the set to win 6-1.
There were more encouraging signs for Murray as he held serve convincingly at the start of the second set and made Djokovic work in game two.
Lapse
The next three games went with serve before the world number four was handed a 4-2 advantage when a rare lapse from Djokovic caused him to send a forehand long.
Murray went on to close out the second set but was broken early in the decider after sending a backhand into the net to give his opponent a 3-1 advantage.
However, the Scot hit straight back with some fine returns to level the match once again at 3-3 in the third.
Murray then broke to love in the seventh game but Djokovic refused to lie down, clipping a brilliant volley in to make it 4-4.
Yet another break then gave Murray a 5-4 advantage and the chance to serve out the match, but Djokovic hung in there and a double fault restored parity again.
The final two games of the set went with serve before Djokovic, who had looked fatigued but raised his energy levels when it mattered, took control for good.
Djokovic quickly dominated the tie-break and completed the win to extend his victorious streak this year to a remarkable 36 matches.
