US Open 2013: Andy Murray advances to quarterfinals after hard earned victory
Andy Murray en route to victory over Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin. (Getty Images)
Andy Murray and his opponent Denis Istomin struggled in windy conditions in New York as the Briton showed enough quality to advance to his 17th Grand Slam quarterfinal, where he faces Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka.
Wawrinka was impressive has he defeated fifth seed Tomas Berdych 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2.
Murray struggled to find his rhythm and an inconsistent performance saw him take the match 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Istomin broke Murray in the eight game to take a 5-3 lead on serve but the Uzbek relinquished the opportunity when serving for the set, as a double fault gave the Murray the chance to serve and come back to level terms.
The set went to a tie-break, which Istomin won 7-5. A run of nine games out of 11 saw Murray take the second set 6-1 and take a 3-1 lead in the third.
Murray was irritated by some bad line calls in the match, and at one point, an overrule by the umpire early in the third set prompted Murray to plead: “We have to replay that point? Are you kidding me?”
Uncharacteristic errors from the Briton saw Istomin pull the third set back to 3-3 but Murray dug deep to break the Uzbek and take the 3rd set. There was no more drama as Murray broke at 4-4 in the 3rd set and closed out the match, sealing the 4th set 6-4.
“I wanted to just try and get through the match,” said Murray. “In the end it was difficult conditions. It was extremely windy.
“With the way he plays, he hits the ball pretty big and flat on both sides, strokes pretty low, hard at times to control. He made it very difficult for me.
“With the way the third set ended up going, I was just very happy to get it done because he had chances at the end of the third set to go ahead.”
Murray came through in three hours and seven minutes.
In the other fourth round matches Lleyton Hewitt looked as though he could make his first Grand Slam quarterfinal in four years but faltered at 4-2 in the fourth set and 5-2 in the fifth set to give Mikhail Youzhny a 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 7-5 victory.
Novak Djokovic meanwhile breezed to a 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 victory over Marcel Granollers to book a quarterfinal berth.
Serena Williams was similarly dominant as she handed Suarez Navarro a 6-0, 6-0 beating in just 52 minutes to advance to the semi-finals.
Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka struggled for form as rain disturbed the flow of the match but managed to beat Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to survive in the tournament following Ivanovic’s first set onslaught.