Blake stands in Murray's way

British number one Andy Murray will take on American James Blake in the final of the AEGON Championships at Queen's.

Murray, bidding to become the first British winner of the tournament since Bunny Austin in 1938, disposed of Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-2 6-4 in his centre court semi-final.

Blake made it into the final by default after his opponent Andy Roddick, looking to win a fifth AEGON title, twisted his ankle and was forced to retire with the scores level at 4-4 in the opening set.

Murray, the competition's top seed, has not dropped a set in the entire competition and is now favourite to win his first grass title on home soil.

It has been perfect preparation for the 22-year-old ahead of Wimbledon but the Scot is refusing to get carried away with his success as SW19 looms ever closer.

"It's so easy based on a few matches to get ahead of yourself," said Murray.

"That's a problem I think that a lot of people have in this country - expecting huge things and thinking that it's just going to happen.

"I need to go out there and make it happen. Any Grand Slams are going to be incredibly tough.

"There's no part of me that's thinking about winning the Wimbledon title. I'm sure if I get close to doing it, it might cross my mind, but a very, very long way away from doing that just now.

"It's all a hype thing and if you get caught up in it, then it becomes an issue.

"I'm thinking about the match tomorrow, I'm not thinking about the Wimbledon final. When I get to Wimbledon I won't be thinking about the second week, I'll be thinking about the first match.

"The build-up is tough because you get asked so many questions that it would be easy to start thinking ahead and letting the pressure and expectations get to you.

"But if you just stay focused on what your job is, once the tournament starts, that's not a problem for me, because I expect a lot of myself. I put pressure on myself to play well, but only on each match, not to win the tournament just yet."

Blake was disappointed to reach the final at injured Roddick's expense but believes he can produce the kind of game to push Murray all the way in the final.

"It was absolutely not the way I wanted to win," admitted Blake. "Especially against such a good friend and someone who, in my opinion, is good enough to win Wimbledon.

"If he had tried to keep going and possibly gone over on it again it would really have endangered his chance of playing at Wimbledon.

"I think he weighed that up in the couple of games in which he kept trying to play and realised he had to make the decision for the long term.

"Anyone that's in a final has the ability to play great tennis, and I'd like to think I do.

"If I'm playing well and putting pressure on him, you know, you take your chances, and a lot of times if you're playing well it's going to come down to a point or two here and there.

"You just take advantage of a break point here, a point in a tiebreaker there or something and go after your shots, play aggressive and see what happens."

Injured Roddick remains confident he will be fit for Wimbledon and will undergo more scans on his ankle tomorrow.

"I'm going to do everything I can to play at Wimbledon," said Roddick.

"We're scheduled to get it looked at again tomorrow and do some scans on it and see where we're at, but initial tests showed the stability and strength was okay.

"We're looking at days, not weeks. My trainer and doctors don't think anything is torn.

"I was just going back after I hit the shot, and there's a difference in height between where the grass court ends and where the concrete goes, and I just unfortunately stepped at a bad angle.

"It kind of just twisted a little bit. Running straight ahead was all right but side to side was suspect.

"Obviously with the bigger picture in mind, I could only make it worse out there. I wasn't going to help my prospects at Wimbledon at all by going through the motions out there and moving at, you know, 20 or 30% of what I can."