Murray digs deep to beat Ljubicic
Andy Murray made to work hard for win
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Thursday, 19, Mar 2009 10:23
Andy Murray has reached the semi-finals in Indian Wells with a hard-fought 7-5 7-6 win over Croatian Ivan Ljubicic.
Murray got off to a great start as he broke Ljubicic in the very first game, even though it was a case of poor shots from his opponent then Murray creating the break. The Scot consolidated the break to take a 2-1 lead.
Ljubicic then showed why he has been as high as number three in the world as a crunching crosscourt forehand winner and a couple of clever drop shots which gave the Croat a couple of break point chances. But Murray took them away with a booming ace and a forehand winner down the line to take a 3-1 lead.
The second serve is one of the few weaknesses that Murray has in his game and Ljubicic was looking to take advantage of this by continuously attacking the Murray second serve. The 30-year-old Croat saw this tactic payoff as he broke back to level things up at 3-3.
The break-back transformed Ljubicic and he started to flatten-out his shots and hit a series of blistering winners to take a 5-4 lead in the first set. Murray then had his best service game, which included two aces, to get to 5-5.
Two high smashes into the net from Ljubicic helped Murray to a 0-40 and the British number one went on to take a crucial break serve. After 51 gruelling minutes, Murray took the first set 7-5.
Despite taking the first set, Murray still had his struggles on serve. The Scot was trailing 15-40 on his serve at 2-1 down, but then came up with an awesome second serve down the line and an ace to save the game and level up at 2-2.
Murray failed to take two break point opportunities at 4-4, but was very lucky to get a third one. Murray lofted the ball back into play from way behind the baseline and the ball landed a yard from the net on the other side and Ljubicic was there to put the ball away.
But the linesman called the ball out and Ljubicic let it go. A less than confident Murray then challenged the call and hawkeye showed the ball had actually hit the line. Ljubicic was bewildered by the series of events and unsurprisingly went on to lose his serve and go down 5-4 in the set.
The world number four was however unable to serve out the match and the second set eventually went to a tiebreak. Murray fell a mini-break behind to go 4-3 down but fought back to take a 6-5 lead and had a match point of the Ljubicic serve, but was unable to take it.
Murray then managed to win the next point on the Ljubicic serve and won the match with a thumping forehand down the line.