Murray’s comeback nets best scalp yet
ANDY MURRAY said he was “going in the right direction” after his biggest win since his hip surgery.
The former world No1 showed his old grit to beat world No13 Matteo Berrettini 7-6, 7-6 at the China Open in Beijing.
The Scot fought back from a break down in each set – and saved two points in the second-set tiebreak
– to claim his biggest scalp in more than a year.
He will now face fellow Brit Cameron Norrie in the early hours today.
“It was a tight match and I thought I did pretty well,” he said. “Hopefully, I can have a good run here. That was a good start for me.
“When I came back, I didn’t really feel like I was playing at a great level.
“Whereas even last week
[in Zhuhai], although I lost in the second round, I felt like I was playing tour-level tennis. It was a big step for me. Things are going in the right direction.
“Now I just need to try to get the matches, get them consistently, so that I’m used to playing three, four matches in a week.
“Right now, at this level, I don’t know if I’m ready to do that or not. So the more I can get through these sort of matches, the more I’ll get there a bit quicker. I feel like the progress has been quite consistent and, hopefully, that keeps going through until the end of the year.”
World No1 Novak Djokovic won his first match since pulling out of the US Open with a shoulder injury when he beat qualifier Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of the Japan
Open.