Saturday 14 February 2015 09:07, UK
Andy Murray overcame a lethargic second set to battle past Vasek Pospisil and into the quarter-finals of the ABN AMRO in Rotterdam.
The Scot was far from his fluent best, blighted by hurting his ankle and ongoing frustrations with his own performance, but did enough to win 6-3 7-5.
A back-and-forth second set saw both players trade relentlessly from their base-lines. Pospisil led 5-3 but was overpowered as Murray recovered to close out the match and advance to the last eight.
Threat
The Canadian threatened to break early in the match after holding his own during rallies and although he couldn’t, Murray went into the break querying the time spent between games with the umpire.
Pospisil gave up a break point without working Murray too hard to make it 5-3 in the opener and the British No 1 sprinted to the end of the set in a total of 36 minutes. He had only registered five winners in the whole set.
Moments into the next set Murray limped out of a dash across his base-line, his grimacing face indicating a painfully turned ankle, and he only just held his service game.
Cursing and berating his own game, Murray pushed forwards to the net to win a break point and go 3-2 ahead in the second set but wouldn’t see things out as smoothly as he hoped.
A brilliant return down the line from Pospisil earned him an immediate break and he held his serve to go 4-3 ahead, screaming his delight in Murray fashion.
The 24-year-old began to find success; a wonderful lob followed by a volley won a point after Murray angrily wrecked his racket.
Tide turned
With Pospisil 5-3 ahead in the second set the tide dramatically changed, one long and gruelling point with 30 shots was edged by Murray who went on to win break point.
Pospisil did little against Murray’s serve and continually struggled to match the Scot’s legs and strength when they rallied from the base-line.
Murray soon found himself at five apiece in the second set and an intense, edgy break of serve put him 6-5 up and allowed him to serve out the match and advance into the next round.
After being given a good workout by Pospisil, Murray told atpworldtour.com: "Obviously, the second set was a lot of momentum swings.
"I went up a break, was feeling good, but then I lost my serve to love in the next game. In the game after that I got broken to 15.
"Obviously, when he was serving for it he was in a great position. But we had a 30-shot rally on set point. It was a very physical rally, I was making him do more of the running and I think it took quite a lot out of him.
"My level was good. I moved well and I felt like when I really needed to, I was able to improve my level and step my game up a bit. I found a little bit of extra intensity in the important moments and that was key."
Murray will meet the Frenchman Gilles Simon in the quarter-finals, after the No 8 seed beat compatriot Jeremy Chardy 6-4 6-3 in his scond round match.
The Scot said: "Gilles is a tough opponent. He's a strong runner with perfect timing. I'll need to serve better than today."
You can watch Murray against Simon live on Sky Sports 3, coverage starts at 11.30am on Friday February 13.
