Andy Murray faces French rival Gilles Simon in the semi-finals of the Thailand Open in Bangkok on Saturday.
Murray reached the last four with a comfortable 6-4, 6-4 win over Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov on Friday and afterwards he explained his reasoning for playing the full Asian swing this year.
Murray is hoping to leapfrog Roger Federer in the rankings and end the year in the top three. If he manages it, it will be the first time in eight years that Federer has been ranked fourth or lower.
He was satisfied with his performance against Dimitrov having eased through without ever being in top gear.
"I served well again," Murray said. "He started the match pretty well and once I served a couple of break points in my second service game, the momentum was then with me for a lot of the match. I did not give him too many opportunities on my serve. Returning is normally one of the strongest parts of my game, so when I served well I tended to put pressure on him and he missed a few shots at the end of both sets."
Simon was less impressive, needing three sets to see off Matthias Bachinger 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Bachinger served out of his skin, smashing down 13 aces but he couldn't convert his break point chances and Simon survived.
Murray leads 7-1 on the head-to-head and has already beaten Simon three times this year, most recently 6-3, 6-3 in the Cincinnati quarters.
Prediction: Murray in two.
