Andy Murray's win over Juan Martin del Potro his best of 2017, says Mark Petchey
Tuesday 6 June 2017 08:29, UK
Mark Petchey believes Andy Murray's victory over Juan Martin del Potro was his best of the year, and can see him building momentum at the French Open.
The 2016 finalist was forced to dig deep in a marathon first set as he battled back from an early break and fended off four set points to win in a tie-breaker after one hour and 25 minutes.
The loss of the opening set seemed to deflate Del Potro, and Murray won 7-6 (8) 7-5 6-0 to advance to the fourth round at Roland Garros.
"It was a great performance," said Sky Sports pundit Petchey. "The opening set was crucial. Del Potro had four set points and served a double fault on one of them.
"They were significant moments and Murray came through them well. He played really good tennis in the last couple of sets and will feel very happy that he managed to impose his tennis on Del Potro.
"Murray played some pretty good stuff in Doha and at times well in Dubai, but in terms of how he dictated the match and played mainly on his terms against such a big hitter you could probably say it was his best match of the year."
Murray has struggled for form this year after finishing 2016 on a high, but he impressed against Del Potro, who beat the world No 1 over five sets in their last meeting in the Davis Cup in September.
"Murray's accuracy on his serve got better, particularly on the AD side he targeted Del Potro's backhand," said Petchey. "Del Potro had a big issue on the backhand side with his side as Murray was able to return so effectively on second serves, which put a lot of pressure on his first serve on that side.
"Between two players who are that good those are significant mini-battles within the battle and Andy came out on top.
"He also hit 20 forehand winners, when he only had nine in the first round against Andrey Kuznetsov. That's an important shot for him to dictate to players on the clay and that's a big number against somebody who hits the ball so hard. I think he will have very few complaints, if any, of how he played."
Murray will next face 21st seed John Isner or Russian Karen Khachanov for a place in the quarter-finals.
And Petchey can see the world No 1 improving as he is progressing at the tournament.
"Andy has had a difficult year with different types of illness and injury, and he has struggled to get momentum more than anything," he said.
"Getting momentum going, even for a great player, is important, and with certain things having been out of his control he has struggled. The longer format of Grand Slams has allowed him to get more match time in each of the wins and enabled him to get in a position where he is match fit and feeling comfortable again.
"Along with that comes better movement and you saw how well he defended today.
"He will feel a lot better about his chances. No-one will hit the ball harder with one stroke than Juan does off the forehand. There are bigger tests ahead, but that was a massive one considering who it was so early in a tournament. There is an extra confidence boost from beating someone with the quality of Del Potro so early in a tournament."
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