ANDY MURRAY, TOMAS BERDYCH REACH ROTTERDAM QFs

Written by: Staff on 12th February 2015

ANDY MURRAY, TOMAS BERDYCH REACH ROTTERDAM QFs |

“@andymurray man in black. Focus #abnamrowtt” – Photo by @abnamrowtt

World No. 4 Andy Murray avoided going the distance against Vasek Pospisil on Thursday in Rotterdam, reeling off the final four games of the second-round contest to prevail 6-3, 7-5 at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.

Pospisil served for the second set at 5-4 and had one set point opportunity. But the Canadian couldn’t match Murray for physicality in the bruising rallies and paid the price as the Scot rallied back to seal victory in one hour and 44 minutes.

“Obviously, the second set was a lot of momentum swings,” said Murray. “I went up a break, was feeling good, but then I lost my serve to love in the next game. In the game after that I got broken to 15. Obviously, when he was serving for it he was in a great position. But we had a 30-shot rally on set point. It was a very physical rally, I was making him do more of the running and I think it took quite a lot out of him.

“My level was good. I moved well and I felt like when I really needed to, I was able to improve my level and step my game up a bit. I found a little bit of extra intensity in the important moments and that was key.”

The 27-year-old Murray is coming off a runner-up showing in his eighth Grand Slam final at the Australian Open (l. to Djokovic). The Dunblane native is bidding to reclaim the Rotterdam title that he won in 2009 (d. Nadal) and lift the 32nd tour-level trophy of his career.

Next up for Murray will be eighth seed Gilles Simon, who won an all-French contest with Jeremy Chardy, 6-4, 6-3, to reach his second straight ATP World Tour quarter-final. “Today I played well from the beginning till the end,” said Simon. “That was a big improvement compared to my first-round match.”

Murray takes a 12-1 FedEx ATP Head2Head lead over Simon into the contest, but Simon believes he can stop the Scot’s 12-match winning run. “My coach Jan knows him well and has helped unblock me against him. I played much better against him in the past two matches even though I ended up losing them. He’s obviously a very strong player who always finds a lot of solutions.”

Third seed Tomas Berdych came through a topsy-turvy second-round encounter to reach the quarter-finals with a 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Andreas Seppi.

“@tomasberdych progresses to the QF of the #abnamrowtt after a 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 win over Andreas Seppi.” – Photo by @abnamrowtt

Berdych is the defending champion at this ATP World Tour 500 indoor hard-court tournament and goes on to face Gael Monfils for a spot in the semi-finals. The Czech improved to an 8-2 FedEx ATP Head2Head record over Seppi as he beat the Italian in 88 minutes, firing 10 aces and converting four of his seven break points.

“I think it was a very solid game today,” said Berdych. “The opponent was not easy at all. I had my game plan, which worked perfectly from the beginning. He just started to play much better and took his chance, the only one he had in the second set. But in the third set, I was able to finish it, get my chances and execute.”

The 29-year-old Berdych has made an impressive start to his 2015 campaign. Working with new coach, Dani Vallverdu, the right-hander reached the final in Doha (l. to Ferrer) and ended a 17-match losing streak against Rafael Nadal to reach the Australian Open semi-finals (to Murray).

Courtesy and Original Link from ATP: http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2015/02/6/Rotterdam-Thursday-Murray-Berdych.aspx )

Topics: Abn Amro World Tennis Tournament, Andy Murray, Rotterdam, Tennis, Tomas Berdych

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10sBalls_com says:

February 12, 2015 at 12:26 pm

-@andy_murray, @tomasberdych REACH #ROTTERDAM QFs- http://t.co/DkQcTiMvKL #tennis #abnamrowtt #ATPRotterdam #ABNAMRO #Murray