Andy Murray from Britain and Nikolay Davydenko from Russia on Thursday advanced to the semifinals of the inaugural Capitala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition event featuring six of world's top 10 players.

Murray beat James Blake from the United States 6-2, 6-2 to set up a semifinal meeting with Roger Federer from Switzerland.

Davydenko upset Andy Roddick, also from the United States, 6-4, 6-4 in the other first round match and will face Rafael Nadal from Spain in Friday's semis.

Nadal and Federer both received first-round byes in the event, which is not part of the ATP Tour but offers a winner-take-all prize of 250,000 U.S. dollars.

"For these (exhibition) matches, concentration is not 100 percent and you don't run that extra hard between the lines," Davydenko said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2009)