Murray Survives Verdasco Challenge
Murray Survives Verdasco Challenge
World No. 2 prevails in second-round clash in Paris
Andy Murray came through a stern opening test from Fernando Verdasco on Wednesday at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris, weathering some inspired play from the Spaniard to advance, 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-5.
“It wasn’t the best match from my side. I got through it. I will play better tomorrow,” Murray said. “I didn’t necessarily feel comfortable out there, but I feel like the way the two of us finished the match, I was stronger at the end in the last game when I had my chance.”
With the win, Murray remains in contention to unseat Novak Djokovic as World No. 1. He will need to either win in Paris and have Djokovic lose before the final, or finish runner-up and have the Serbian lose before the semi-finals. Djokovic won his second-round match earlier in the day over Gilles Muller.
Next up for the Brit is No. 13 seed and local favourite Lucas Pouille, who prevailed on Wednesday over Feliciano Lopez. Murray leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-0 and has dropped just seven games against the Frenchman, including a convincing win last month at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
“He’s a big hitter. He takes chances,” said Murray of Pouille. “He’s quite similar to Fernando, actually, apart from being a righty. Both of them like to go for big first serves and take chances from the back of the court.”
A single break of serve was all Murray needed to take the opening set. Verdasco raced to a 4-1 lead in the second set, but couldn’t serve it out at 5-3 and Murray eventually forced a tie-break. Verdasco took a commanding 6/2 lead and made good on his fourth set point chance to bring the match to a deciding set.
Little separated the two players until the final stages of the third set. Murray saved two critical break point chances at 5-5 and then promptly broke Verdasco in the next game to prevail in two hours and 28 minutes.
Murray now has seven consecutive wins over Verdasco and improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry over the Spaniard to 12-1. His lone loss to Verdasco came at the 2009 Australian Open.
