Andy Murray will face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the Vienna Open final after David Ferrer's withdrawal gave the in-form top seed a walkover and the Frenchman beat Ivo Karlovic on Saturday.
Murray stretched his winning run to 13 matches by outclassing John Isner at the quarterfinal stage on Friday and the three-time Grand Slam champion was able to put his feet up a day later due to left leg injury sustained by defending champion Ferrer.
Wimbledon and Olympic champion Murray, eyeing a third successive title and a seventh of an outstanding year, will be a strong favourite to beat Tsonga as the Brit continues to close the gap on World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
Top seed Murray said: "I knew that David had an injury at the beginning of the week. He played a very long match yesterday [against Viktor Troicki], so that was unfortunate for him. He's one of the more robust players and doesn't often have too many niggles. He must have been in quite a bit of pain. It's unfortunate for him, but I'll try to get ready for the final and use today as a rest day.
"It will be a hard match, but I'm motivated to finish the season strong. Being in another final after a tough week is good."
Murray has won 13 of his 15 matches against Frenchman Tsonga, who reached his first ATP World Tour final of the season by battling back to beat Karlovic 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6). Tsonga clawed his way back from 3-1 down in the second set and saved a match point in a tense final-set tie-break to down the big-serving Croatian.
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