Murray Moves Into Rome QFs

Andy Murray avoided a third set against Jeremy Chardy as he held off a second-set fightback from the Frenchman to prevail 6-0, 6-4 on Thursday in the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

It took Chardy 38 minutes to register his first game of the match, as he levelled at 1-1 in the second set. The first set had seen Murray in ruthless form, losing just four points on serve and breaking Chardy three times.

But after holding from 0/40 in the sixth game of the second set, Chardy then broke Murray in the following game, threading a backhand pass up the line for a 4-3 lead. The Frenchman’s revival was short-lived, though. Murray broke back in the following game, converting his fourth break point as Chardy netted a forehand, before winning the final two games to prevail in 78 minutes.

“It could have been more comfortable in the second set,” Murray said. “I had 3-2, love-40 and, I think, four break points in that game, didn’t get them. Then I had a couple of mistakes in the next game and the momentum shifted a lot.

“But I managed to get it back by winning a very tough game at 4-3 and then finished the match off well. But apart from a few minutes of the match, I played very well. I was making it difficult for him and played a lot of different shots. I used a lot of variety so that was good.”

The 28-year-old Murray is bidding to reach the semi-finals at the Foro Italico for the first time since 2011 (l. to Djokovic). He goes on to face David Goffin.

Murray is coming off a runner-up showing in his third ATP World Tour clay-court final in Madrid, where he lost out to Novak Djokovic. The Dunblane native won his first two clay-court crowns last year in Munich and Madrid.

Goffin raced through his third-round clash with Tomas Berdych 6-0, 6-0 in just 49 minutes, handing the Czech his first double bagel at any level, including singles, doubles and ITF juniors. The 12^th-seeded Goffin lost just 15 points in the whole match, including only eight on serve. The last time a Top 10 player was double bagelled was when Roger Federer defeated Gaston Gaudio at the 2005 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Victory marked just the third Top 10 win of Goffin’s career (3-26 mark). The Belgian is bidding to reach his third Masters 1000 semi-final of the season, after back-to-back final four showings in Indian Wells (l. to Raonic) and Miami (l. to Djokovic).

“He’s obviously a top player,” Murray said. “Now he’s been around Top 20 in the world for the last couple of years, and again, this year he’s played very well. I didn’t see any of the match today, but to win love and love against one of the best players in the world, you’ve got to be feeling good.

“It was a tough match in the [2015] Davis Cup final when we played, you know, but I managed to win that one. Hopefully I learned a few things from playing against him on the clay and I’ll try and execute a good game plan tomorrow. It worked well in Ghent.”

Murray leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Goffin 3-0.