Murray on course for Queen's honour

It took Murray, bidding to become the first British winner of the tournament since Bunny Austin's triumph in 1938, just 71 minutes to see off Ferrero 6-2 6-4.

Murray now faces James Blake in the final on Sunday after the American's semi-final opponent Andy Roddick pulled out with an ankle injury in the first set of their match.

The Scot was quickly into his stride against Ferrero and broke the Spaniard's serve in the opening game of the first set. It was the perfect start for Murray who quickly increased the lead by holding his serve comfortably in the second game.

Ferrero struggled to cope with Murray's returns and the Scot went on to make it 5-1 in just 21 minutes of play on the centre court.

The Spaniard managed to reduce the arrears to 5-2, and, although Murray double-faulted for the first time in the game, he soon made it 15-all and an over-hit return gave the Scot the chance to win the first set 6-2.

Ferrero looked certain to lose the opening game of the second set on his serve but fought back from love-40 to lead 1-0. And despite a slight wobble that saw Ferrero make it love-30 Murray fought back with two successive aces of 132mph and 134mph. It was vintage stuff from the world number three who went on to make it 1-1.

But the Scot missed an opportunity to break Ferrero's serve in the third game and struggled to make it 2-2 as the Spaniard finally woke up.

But the breakthrough for Murray finally arrived in the seventh game when Ferrero's over-hit return gave the Scot a break of serve and a 4-3 lead.

The match moved towards its inevitable conclusion when Murray's dominance put him 5-3 ahead. Ferrero kept himself in with a chance of saving the set when he held serve to make it 5-4 but Murray finished him off in the next game to take the match 6-2 6-4.