Andy Murray
reached the quarter-finals of the Erste Bank Open after a hard-fought
6-4, 6-4 win over Vasek Pospisil of Canada on Thursday.
The
second-seeded Murray, who had a bye in the first round, dropped serve
while leading 3-2 in the second set but held off five more break chances
for Pospisil.
'Hopefully
I can improve for my next game,' the Scot said after his 470th career
win. He joined Fabrice Santoro in 50th place on the Open era win list.
Andy Murray punches the air in celebration after winning a point in his second-round match in Vienna
The
Scot is making his tournament debut after revising his schedule in
order to make a late push for a spot in the ATP World Tour Finals next
month, following defeat to David Ferrer in the Shanghai Open.
The
27-year-old took a wild card entry into the Vienna competition, where
he is seeded No 2, to try to move from 11th-place in the rankings to
inside the top eight, so he can compete at the season-ending showpiece
in London.
Pospisil had 27 aces in his first-round win over Daniel Brands of Germany but just three against Murray.
Murray
plays Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany next, who won the last seven points
in the third-set tiebreaker to beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 7-6
(6), 2-6, 7-6 (3).
Canadian Vasek Pospisil returns the ball during his straight-sets defeat to second-seed Murray
David
Ferrer advanced to his 15th quarter-final of the season after defeating
Tobias Kamke of Germany 7-5, 6-1. The fifth-ranked Ferrer, the top
seed, avoided service breaks and converted his second match point with a
forehand winner.
'It
was tough in the first set but in the second I played better, more
solid, more consistent,' said Ferrer, who plays No. 6 Ivo Karlovic of
Croatia in the quarter-finals. The Spaniard needs to reach Sunday's
final to improve his chances of qualifying for the ATP Finals.
Earlier, Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil rallied to beat the 2004 champion, No. 3 Feliciano Lopez, 6-7 (9), 6-1, 6-4.
Lopez,
who was ranked a career-high 14th after beating Rafael Nadal on his way
to the Shanghai semi-finals last week, lost eight straight games from
1-1 in the second. The Spaniard also lost 19 points in a row, including
the first 13 of the final set.
Murray, making his debut at the Erste Bank Open, was made to work hard for the win by his opponent
Bellucci
will meet Viktor Troicki of Serbia, who reached his third quarter-final
since returning from a doping ban in July by beating No. 5 Lukas Rosol
of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2.
Also,
Benjamin Becker of Germany defeated last year's finalist, Robin Haase
of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-3, winning six straight games to lead by a
set and 2-0. He lined up a quarter-final against compatriot Philipp
Kohlschreiber.
No comments:
Post a Comment