Slowly but
surely, signs of the Andy Murray who won Wimbledon last year are
starting to re-emerge, as he claimed his second title in four weeks.
The
Vienna Open is not SW19 but a remarkable 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 victory over
world No 5 David Ferrer gave a reminder of why Murray was a fixture
among the so-called Big Four for so long.
At
the moment the goal is merely to be in the top eight that will qualify
for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena next month, and
he went some way to achieving that by winning in the Austrian capital.
Andy Murray proudly holds the Erste Open trophy after his victory in Vienna
A dejected David Ferrer watches on after he lost out to Murray in the final
Murray is overjoyed after his comeback victory against Ferrer to claim the Erste Open title
The 27-year-old broke his opponent three times in the final set to see out the match
In
battling back from 3-5 down in the deciding set Murray elevated himself
into eighth position in the race to London with two events remaining.
'It
will be close,' he rightly cautioned after toppling the indefatigable
Spaniard in a match of frequent service breaks by two of the game's
great returners.
Barely
100 points separate the Scot, Ferrer and Canada's Milos Raonic in
competition for the few remaining slots. Grigor Dimitrov is not out of
it either.
The
250 points that Murray will get as the winner of Vienna are useful but
an awful lot can change in the next fortnight with 500 on offer this
week in Valencia or Basle and 1000 for the Paris Masters next week.
Murray won his second title in three weeks after rallying to defeat Ferrer 5-7, 6-2, 7-5
Ferrer was leading the Scot 5-3 in the final set before Murray staged his title-winning comeback
Matters
might yet be made easier if Rafael Nadal withdraws from London to have
surgery, something the French Open champion repeated was possible.
Murray
could not afford to celebrate too much — 'maybe one glass of champagne
tonight, but not more than that' — as he headed straight for Valencia,
where he is expected to be reunited with head coach Amelie Mauresmo. It
will be his fifth straight tournament in five weeks.
For
Murray, Sunday's ranking-points boost will be outweighed by the
intangible worth of coming through an extremely tough contest against an
opponent who famously never gives it away.
The Scot remonstrates with Ferrer after a contentious decision during the final set
Murray feels the strain in the early stages of the match after Ferrer claimed the first set 7-5
These
are the building blocks Murray needs to put in place to return to the
top of the game. This was the kind of eye-catching win that has been
lacking since his return from back surgery in January.
It
looked as if he had suppressed the difficult Spaniard on this brisk
indoor court when he pulled ahead in the second set after a tight
opener.
Murray
looked to be cruising when he went 2-0 ahead in the decider, only to
concede the next four and get broken again when he had pulled back to
3-4 on serve.
Murray will be switching his focus to the Valencia Open 500 after his victory in Vienna
As Ferrer served for the match Murray finally opened his shoulders to hit out in glorious fashion.
At 5-5 he broke with a backhand return winner and served out comfortably, winning with an ace that was initially called out.
And
so his late entry was ultimately rewarded. Losing this final would have
been a massive blow, given the amount these two took out of each other
in a physical battle.
At this rate there will be a lot of tired bodies by the time the key event in Paris begins a week on Monday
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