Madrid Open: Andy Murray storms past Marcel Granollers into the quarter-finals
World Number three Andy Murray, predictably exhausted following his midnight-match against Philipp Kohlschreiber, who pushed him to three sets, took the court on Thursday against Marcel Granollers and showed no outward signs of fatigue, dispatching the Spaniard 6-2, 6-0.
Although Murray was admittedly tired, in the wake of his late night encounter against someone as redoubtable as Kohlschreiber, the Scot was nothing short of clinical as he virtually annihilated his opponent. In the opening set, Granollers dropped his serve in the fourth and eighth games while Murray prevented the former from getting on the board in the second set.
Murray did not try to hide his irritation at the lack of proper planning that went into scheduling his matches. "I felt very tired today; if they want to see the top players playing the best tennis, don't have them play matches at three o'clock in the morning”, said Murray.
Murray’s victory against Granollers takes him into the quarter-finals, where he will face fifth seed Milos Raonic.
"I got through this one fairly quickly," added the Scot, who completed his win in 64 minutes. "It's been a good start for me. Hopefully, I'll play a good match in the quarters”, Murray added.
Raonic, Berdych storm into quarter-finals
Raonic made optimal use of his menacing serve against a seemingly hapless Leonardo Mayer in the third round match.
Raonic struck 11 aces as he cruised to a 6-4, 6-3 win. The Canadian, ranked six in the World, will now have to brace himself for a quarter-final clash against Murray. Incidentally, Raonic leads the head-to-head against the Scot, 3-2, and has won the only match the two have ever played on clay, at Barcelona in 2012.
Meanwhile, Nick Kyrgios, who caused a major upset by taking out the top-billed Roger Federer in the second round, was unable to carry his winning momentum on to his third-round clash against the big-serving American John Isner.
Isner looked invincible on serve, striking as many as 20 aces and not facing a single break point. After having taken the first set rather comfortably, Kyrgios managed to steal the second in the tiebreak before Isner wrapped up the match , 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-4, in the third set. The win took the American through to the quarter-final, where he will come up against Tomas Berdych.
Unlike his quarter-final opponent, Berdych did not have too much trouble sealing his spot in the last eight. In a match that seemed to have all the ingredients of an exciting contest, Berdych sauntered to an easy straight-sets win against the mercurial Ho-Wilfred Tsonga.
Tsonga showed some fight in the first set, where, despite losing his serve in the sixth game, he broke back to reassert himself in the match. But a resilient Berdych broke the Frenchman in the 12th game to take the first set. The second set was largely a one-sided affair with Berdych dropping just two games as he romped to a 7-5, 6-2 win to book a quarter-final date with Isner.