Murray magic too good for Sinner

ANDY MURRAY produced one of his best performances since hip surgery to defeat top seed Jannik Sinner and reach the quarter-finals of the Stockholm Open.

Murray had lost a succession of close matches to top-20 players before defeating then world No.10 Hubert Hurkacz in Vienna a fortnight ago.

Italian Sinner is the same ranking and one of the hottest young prospects in the game but Murray produced an impressive display, breaking his 20-year-old opponent twice in the second set on the way to a 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, triumph.

“It was a very tough match,” the 34-year-old Scot said. “He hits the ball huge from the back of the court so a lot of long rallies and a lot of running but it’s probably my best win this season. I want to keep it going now.

“If I want to move back up the rankings and have good runs at the tournaments again, I need to win these matches. I’ve played a lot of guys ranked between three, four in the world to 15, 16. I have won a couple of them but I’ve lost quite a few. It’s good to start to turn those matches around. Now I’m in the quarters, so I want to have a deep run here.”

Murray, who is trialling a new coach this week in Spaniard Esteban Carril, has played a series of long tie-breaks recently but here he took his first set point having saved the only break point of a long opener.

He then broke Sinner, who narrowly missed out on a place in next week’s ATP Finals, to lead 2-1 in the second and maintained the pressure until the finish.

This will be only Murray’s second ATP Tour quarterfinal in the last two years and victory over American Tommy Paul would put him through to the last four at this level for the first time since his title in Antwerp in 2019.

The Scot was joined in the quarter-finals by British No.2 Dan Evans, who was in good form against Spaniard Davidovich Fokina to win 7-6 (7-5), 6-2. He will next face Frances Tiafoe, who defeated Pedro Martinez 6-4, 6-4.