Battle of Britain victory shows real progress for Murray in China Open
● Norrie beaten as Scot wins two in a row for first time in injury comeback
Andy Murray was tired but happy after coming through a gruelling three-set showdown with Cameron Norrie to book his place in the quarter-finals at the China Open.
The 32-year-old claimed his first back-to-back Tour singles wins since undergoing hip surgery in January with a 7-6(6), 6-7(4), 6-1 victory over his fellow Briton in Beijing to make the last eight for the first time in 12 months.
However, he had to dig deep to do so, battling through fatigue in the second set before surging across the finishing line to set up a showdown with top seed Dominic Thiem tomorrow.
The Austrian world No 5 defeated Chinese wild card Zhizhen Zhang 6-3, 6-3.
For Murray, there were flashes of the touch and plenty of the grit which took the former world No 1 to the pinnacle of the game in a contest which lasted two hours and 52 minutes.
Murray told www.atptour. com: “I’m tired – I just had a sleep before coming. I’m really tired.
“That’s the first time I’ve had to do that since I came back. It’s something that I need to kind of get used to again, especially playing at this level and that intensity.
“It was a good step for me. It’s great that I won the match. Whether I’d won or lost it, I was able to come out the following day and be competitive and play some good tennis. But obviously I’m happy I’ve got the day off tomorrow to recover.”
Thetwicewimbledonchampion served for the first set at 5-3, but was broken and Norrie also saved three set points in the tie-break before a double fault handed it to Murray.
However, the British No 3 made Murray pay in the second set as he raced into a 5-2 lead with the double Olympic gold medallist wilting.
He did summon up impressive reserves to square it at 5-5, but Norrie claimed the tiebreak in some comfort to level.
But far from capitulating, Murray responded in devastating fashion, securing a double break as he claimed the first five games of the final set and eventually won it 6-1. Murray said: “The good thing about tennis is that you can change strategy and tactics.
“If you watched the end of the second set, pretty much the whole of the third set, I tried to keep the points short. I started coming to the net a lot more. My feeling was that the average rally length went down by quite a few shots.
“In the third set, I didn’t really feel like out of breath after any of the rallies, whereas in the middle of the second set, I felt like there were three or four games where we were playing a lot of long points, but he was also dictating the rallies.”
World No 9 nine Karen Khachanov fought past Frenchman Jeremy Chardy to secure his quarter-final place with a 7-6 (0) 7-6 (5) victory.
Italy’s Fabio Fognini defeated Russian Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-4, saving ten of the 12 break points he faced.
In Tokyo, world No 1 Novak Djokovic continued his return from a shoulder injury with a second-round win over home player Go Soeda.
Before playing at the Japan Open, the Serbian was last in singles action during the US Open, where he retired during his fourth-round contest with Stan Wawrinka.
Djokovic, though, maintained his momentum with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Soeda to progress to the quarter-finals.
“He made me work for my win today and the atmosphere was really good on the court. I enjoyed it,” Djokovic told the ATP Tour website. “I probably played even on a higher level than the first round. So the game is going in the right direction, that’s for sure.”
Top seed Djokovic will go on to meet Lucas Pouille in the last eight after the French fifth seed defeated Japan No 2 Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1, 6-2.
Amercian Reilly Opelka is also through to the quarterfinals after battling to a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2) win over France’s Gilles Simon.
Qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama came from behind to beat Radu Albot 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4 and make sure of home representation in the last eight.
Elsewhere in yesterday’s first-round matches, third seed David Goffin recovered to defeat Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta 1-6, 7-6 (8), 6-0.
Eighth seed Alex De Minaur, though, is out after the Australian was beaten 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (8) by South Africa’s Lloyd George Harris.
“It was a good step for me. Whether I’d won or lost, I was able to come out the following day and be competitive”
ANDY MURRAY