Andy Murray stumbles past Verdasco to advance in Dubai
Wednesday, 05 Mar 2008 15:35
Andy Murray into quarter-finals of Dubai Championships
British number one Andy Murray has beaten Spain's Fernando Verdasco in three sets to advance past the second round of the Dubai Championships.
In a patchy performance, the 20-year-old made hard work of the match after grabbing the upper hand in the first set.
But despite dropping the second set and surrendering the advantage in the third as his intensity levels dropped slightly, Murray eventually triumphed 6-3 3-6 7-6 on a tiebreak decider.
The Scot looked short of the excellent form he showed against world number one Roger Federer in the previous round, but battled hard to overcome the threat of the Spaniard.
The first set had gone with serve until the sixth game when Verdasco handed Murray a slew of opportunities to take the initiative.
And while he was slow on the uptake - squandering three break points – he eventually converted the fourth and served out the set.
The world number 30 bounced back in the second, however, breaking in Murray's first service game and taking a 3-0 lead.
World number 11 Murray recovered to break back in the seventh game to pull the deficit back to 4-3, but Verdasco returned the favour straight away and served out to seal the second set 6-3.
The match looked all over when a below-par Murray broke his opponent again the sixth game of the decider.
But as both men struggled to keep their rhythm and composure, Verdasco again mounted a recovery to level things up at 4-4 and eventually force a tiebreak.
Murray this time sealed the win, although he needed four match points to do so as the Spaniard gifted him the chances with some unforced errors.
Next up for the Scot is fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko in the quarter-finals.