Murray masters the art of winning ugly
From Andy murray a masterclass in the art of winning ugly and all at a sporting venue of timeless beauty. As morning turned to lunchtime, with terrace diners at the monte Carlo Country Club arriving for lunch on another picture perfect day on the riviera, the world No2 somehow ground out victory.
murray has reached the monte Carlo open quarter-finals, but he had to come through to muster a 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 win over world No22 Benoit Paire. He will face milos raonic in the last eight.
Seemingly at odds with the world and gesticulating at his support box, murray looked down and out when two breaks behind at 0-3 in the second.
‘A big win is what it was. When you’re not playing particularly well, it’s a great effort,’ assessed murray. ‘It would have been easy to lose today and get down on myself. But I kept fighting right the way through to the end.’
Seeking to avoid a third straight loss in his second match at a masters event, murray was tougher than an opponent who outplayed him for the most part.
With the odd gin palace and cruise ship bobbing in the sea behind him, he dropped serve five times and needed to break back when Paire served for the match at 5-4.
It was not pretty but a sign that he remains up for a scrap.
For most of the two hours and 33 minutes, he looked destined to follow Novak Djokovic home.
It is tempting to think that Djokovic’s sheer dominance may be demotivating for some of his rivals, but murray was adamant that he was concentrating on his own business.
‘That certainly had no bearing on my match today,’ said murray. ‘Novak’s had unreal success over the last year or so. But he’s come through a lot of matches like that in the last year, and sometimes you can’t quite turn it around.
‘When someone’s serving well it’s tough for anyone.’
murray is back in his traditional role as lone British survivor at a tournament on a day when the French open entry list showed seven direct British singles entries at roland Garros, the highest number in 31 years.
The Scot could yet meet rafael Nadal in the semi-finals after the Spaniard won 7-5, 6-3 against Austrian Dominic Thiem.
As the returning roger Federer also made the quarter-finals, the upsets never materialised.
meanwhile, the International Tennis Federation confirmed that maria Sharapova is still to face an independent tribunal over her positive meldonium test, despite WADA’s potential amnesty for those found with small concentrations of it in their system.