adminA NERVOUS but relieved Andy Murray finished off Philipp Kohlschreiber in 40 additional minutes yesterday to claim a place in the fourth round of the French Open. In a match that was held over from Saturday night with the scores tied at 7-7 in the final set, Murray finally broke the German’s serve to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 12-10; he will now play Fernando Verdasco of Spain in the last 16.
Murray said he had slept only five hours overnight, running over the match in his mind and how he would tackle the resumption. “I was very nervous,” Murray told the crowd. “I kept waking up, I was ready to play at 5 o’clock in the morning. Considering the circumstances today (yesterday), it was a pretty high standard.”
The Scot had a chance to wrap up the match at 9-8 but world No 24 Kohlschreiber saved it well with a smash, having mangled two other smashes soon after the resumption, which took place under cloudy skies around sixteen hours after the pair had left the court the previous night. Having required treatment on both legs the previous evening, Murray looked sharper at the restart and by serving first, had the advantage of keeping his nose in front.
Kohlschreiber had a break point at 9-9, but Murray saved it with a fine first serve and then hit two big forehand winners to move ahead again. At 11-10, Murray stepped up the pace with a brilliant backhand winner and then after two Kohlschreiber mistakes, the Wimbledon champion crunched a superb inside out backhand return winner to clinch victory.
Murray may rue not closing out the match sooner, having led by a break in every set and by two sets to one, 4-2 and 30-0 before allowing the German back in. Now the Scot will face a quick turnaround to be ready for his fourth-round clash against Verdasco, a man he trailed by two sets to love in the Wimbledon quarter-finals before coming back to win on his way to taking the title last summer. — BBC Sport
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