Murray prepares to face familiar ‘foe’ after long absence
ANDY MURRAY is relishing a first meeting with Novak Djokovic in over five years after beating Canada’s Denis Shapovalov in three sets at the Madrid Open.
Murray overcame world No 14 Shapovalov 6-1 3-6 6-2 in two hours and nine minutes to set up a last-16 match against old foe and world No 1 Djokovic.
The rivals have known each other since they were children and faced-off 36 times in their professional careers.
“He’s the world number one and I’ve got a metal hip,” said Murray after his win on Tuesday night. “I didn’t know I’d get opportunities to play matches like this again. In theory I shouldn’t have a chance in the match.
“But I’ve worked my hardest, put myself in a great position and it’s a fantastic opportunity to play against him again on a big court in a huge tournament.”
The 34-year-old Scot, who marked his return to clay for the first time in two years in Madrid with a straight-sets win against Dominic Thiem in the first round, proved too strong for Shapovalov in the deciding set.
“I trained very hard the past four or five weeks and got my game in good shape,” Murray said of his performance post-match.
“My movement has been so much better than where it was at the beginning of the year and it makes a huge difference to my whole game.
“It allows me to make different decisions on the court. My movement won me that match tonight. I defended so many points.
“(Shapovalov) has so much power and I managed to defend lots of points and that won the match for me, so I was really happy with that.”
Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans helped create British history at the event yesterday.
Norrie and Evans both joined Murray in the third round to make it the first ever ATP Masters 1000 event on clay where Britain has had three players at that stage.
British No 1 Norrie beat bigserving American John Isner in three sets, winning 6-4 6-7 (5) 6-4.
The 26-year-old, ranked 11th in the world, was able to find decisive breaks at key moments of the first and third sets to make it through and set up a date with rising star Carlos Alcaraz.
Evans, who has been short of wins lately, posted an impressive 6-3 5-7 7-6 (2) success over home favourite Roberto Bautista Agut and will next play world No 8 Andrey Rublev.