Murray Struggles Past Baghdatis In Tokyo

Written by: Resendiz on 6th October 2011

Andy Murray of Great Britain wins ATP PTT Thailand Open

Murray Struggles Past Baghdatis In Tokyo

Andy Murray of Great Britain celebrates a point against Donald Young of the USA in their men's final match at the ATP PTT Thailand Open tennis tournament in Bangkok, Thailand, on 02 October 2011. Murray defeated Young to win the final. EPA/RUNGROJ YONGRIT |

Yesterday’s first round encounter between Andy Murray and Marcos Baghdatis ended with Murray winning in three sets 7-6 (4) 2-6 6-4 at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2011 in Tokyo.

World No. 4 Andy Murray was down a break in the third set but made a comeback and broke Baghdatis serve in the last game of the match. “It was very tough and long. I did a lot of running especially in the first two sets. It was very different conditions from last week in Bangkok. I think I played very well. At the end of the third set, we were both playing good tennis, but in the first two he was the better player. He might not have played his best tennis so far this year, but he has been close to the Top 10 before,”

Murray said. Murray has already qualified for the end of year ATP Tour Finals in London. He also won the PTT Thailand Open last week where he defeated Donald Young in the final. Next up for Murray is Alex Bogomolov Jr who took out Finn Jarkko Neiminen 6-4 6-4 in the first round.

Dmitry Tursunov of Russia took out last week’s Malaysian Open Champion Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia today in the first round in a match that lasted three hours. The Russian won the first set in a tiebreaker and then he lost the second set in a tiebreaker. There was only one break of serve that decided the winner of this match today. Tursunov broke in the last game of the match to love. “It was definitely a tough match, Janko is playing well. Towards the end of the third set I didn’t want to lose, we’d already played for two hours. I definitely got lucky in the last game, but I think that is how tennis goes. I need my wins anyway I can get them right now,” the Russian said. Next up for Tursunov is Santiago Giraldo of Colombia who took out Dutchman Robin Haase 6-3 7-6 (5).

Australian rising star Bernard Tomic has set up a clash with Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals after a win over Japanese qualifier Tatsuma Ito 6-7 (4) 6-1 7-5. The number four seed Mardy Fish defeated Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-2 6-4. “I felt great tonight. I played much better today that I did on Monday. It is difficult for all the players when the conditions change, but it is nice that the tournament has a roof. It didn’t affect the way I played,” the American said.

Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi were top seeds in the doubles event this week in Tokyo. Unfortunately, that didn’t help the Indo/Pak Express on Wednesday when they lost in the first round against Brazilian pairing Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares 6-4 6-3.

The number four seeds Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek sailed past wildcard duo Donald Young and Japanese player Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-4 6-1.

The second seeds Eric Butorac and Jean –Julien Rojer will clash with Robin Haase and Viktor Troicki in the bottom half of the draw. Butorac and Rojer had a straight set win over Ivan Dodig and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.