Murray happy to beat Cuevas and reach last eight in Antwerp
ANDY MURRAY continued his return to top-level action by reaching the quarter-finals of the European Open in Antwerp with a straight-sets victory over Pablo Cuevas.
The former world No.1, who is battling back from hip surgery, saw off the Uruguayan 6-4, 6-3, in just under 84 minutes in Belgium.
World No.45 Cuevas saved seven break points in the first set but was eventually undone in the 10th game, allowing Murray to take the opener.
Murray, who is now ranked 243, broke again in game six of the second set to lead 4-2 and there was no way back for Cuevas as the Scot finished the job.
Murray, who will now play Romania’s Marius Copil, the world No.92, in the last eight, said: “I thought I served quite well for most of the match and, when I was able to get into the baseline rallies, I felt I was hitting the ball quite clean, which is good.
“He served very well, which made it difficult for me to get the breaks, but I thought for me it was a good match.”
Murray has won his first matches at ATP Tour level in 16 months in this tournament but the event is likely to be his last of the year, with the possible exception of the Davis Cup next month.
With his third child due, he is planning a month-long break and he could even leave Antwerp early if his wife Kim goes into labour.
Meanwhile, Greg Rusedski has warned Murray still has a long road ahead if he is to return to the top of the game.
The Scot has surprised many, including Rusedski, with the level at which he has been able to play only eight-and-a-half months after hip resurfacing surgery.
In a three-week stint in China, Murray beat now world No.11 Matteo Berrettini and pushed Dominic Thiem and Fabio Fognini hard in close defeats.
It was a big step up from the performances Murray produced on his return to singles action in America in August, but, after two years of struggles with his right hip and at the age of 32, Rusedski believes it is too early to make predictions.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I thought it would be much more difficult for him, I thought it would take a little bit longer, but he’s played very, very well,” Rusedski said. “The question mark is still how much can his body take week-in, week-out. There’s still a long road back.
“He’s played two matches back to back, but can he play three, four, five days in a row? It’s too hard to predict. I think we’ll know more when he plays the Australian Open and a three-out-of-five-set match.
“It’s not his mentality or his tennis, it’s what the body will allow him to do. But the signs are very positive.”
Rusedski and Murray are on a list that now includes Dan Evans, who at 43 in the world is the top-ranked player in Britain for the first time.
Evans’ stellar form since returning unranked from a yearlong drugs ban last spring coupled with Kyle Edmund’s slide has left the 29-year-old in top spot, and Rusedski believes he can climb significantly higher.
“Sometimes you go through difficult situations and it forces you to grow up and take stock and do all those things that Dan has done,” said Rusedski. “We’ve always known he had the talent and the ability and I had a feeling at the beginning of this year when I saw him in Australia that he was going to have a fantastic season.
“I think top 20 would be a realistic goal for him if he can keep on the momentum he’s had this season.”
Edmund will find himself outside the top 70 on Monday having started the season ranked 14.
A knee injury plagued him for the first half of the season and he is on a seven-match losing run dating back to early August.
“He’s got to reset, look at what he needs to do and really use this off season to push forward and improve his game,” said Rusedski, a former coach of Edmund. RONNIE O’SULLIVAN was embroiled in a bizarre row over the cleanliness of the restaurant at the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley as he booked his place in the fourth round of the English Open.
O’Sullivan, who has maintained his criticism of the venue which he described as a “hell-hole” last year, posted a tweet yesterday which purported to illustrate hygiene issues.
Beneath a picture appearing to show food waste beneath a table, O’Sullivan wrote: “The floor at K2 Crawley Restaurant not looking too clean”, adding the hashtags #hygiene and #healthandsafety.
However, O’Sullivan’s tweet was dismissed by both World Snooker and the leisure centre operators, Everyone Active, who insisted the photograph in question had been taken six months ago.
On the table, O’Sullivan shut out his frustrations with a comfortable 4-1 win over Hossein Vafaei but was overcome in the last 16 4-3 by Mei Xi Wen.
O’Sullivan, who also made headlines for claiming the K2 venue smelled of urine last year, had stepped up his criticism this week by insisting the venue needed a “complete refurbishment”.
Ironically, that is precisely what Everyone Active insist has happened to the restaurant area since the photograph tweeted by O’Sullivan was allegedly taken – and they issued updated pictures to prove it.
Stuart Mills, the area contract manager for Everyone Active, said: “We can confirm that the picture Ronnie is referring to was taken over six months ago, and we have tweeted him back to reassure him that this is the case.
“Everyone Active has invested £75k into the cafe facilities at K2 and a refurbishment of the restaurant area took place in April 2019.”
Clearly tiring of O’Sullivan’s disquiet over the venue, World Snooker also swiftly reacted, echoing the venue spokesman by insisting that [O’Sullivan’s] picture “isn’t current”.
O’Sullivan was not required to find top gear against Vafaei, who took the first frame of the match but missed a succession of chances and allowed the fivetime world champion to coast to victory, but lost a deciding frame to Wen in the next round.