Murray Extends Lopez Dominance In Barcelona

Top seed Andy Murray made a late debut this year at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, but was in fine form on Thursday as he advanced to the quarter-finals with an impressive 6-4, 6-4 win over Feliciano Lopez.

“I was happy to play today. It was nice to get through and have another match tomorrow,” said Murray. “I didn’t feel so good at the start, but I played good tennis in some of the important moments today.”

Murray finally took the court for the first time this week after receiving a first-round bye and a walkover in his second-round match against Bernard Tomic. Showing improved form compared to last week at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Murray raced to a 5-3 lead in the opening set. Although he was unable to serve out the set, he responded by breaking Lopez in the next game to grab the early advantage.

Both players traded service holds throughout the second set, but Murray found a new gear in the final game by breaking Lopez to take the match in one hour and 49 minutes. He extends his FedEx ATP Head2Head dominance over Lopez to 11-0 and picks up his second win on clay against the Spaniard.

Next up for Murray is tenth seed and last week’s Monte-Carlo runner-up Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who prevailed in an all-Spanish battle over sixth seed Roberto Bautista Agut 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. Murray lost his lone FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting with Ramos-Vinolas last week in the third round of Monte-Carlo.

“I had never played against him before [Monte-Carlo], so now I’ll be a little more aware of his game,” said Murray. “Obviously last week was a frustrating loss, being up 4-0 in the third set, but I’ll hopefully have learned from it and try to play a little differently this time.”

#NextGenATP Russian Karen Khachanov scored his first win over a Top 10 player in the Emirates ATP Rankings by defeating fifth seed David Goffin in a lengthy 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-4 tussle. The Russian saved three set points in the opening set tie-break before Goffin grabbed the early advantage at 8/7. But Khachanov regrouped strongly, striking his forehand with more authority and grabbing the lone break in each of the final two sets to advance in two hours and 34 minutes.

“I feel amazing. It’s the biggest win of my career,” said Khachanov. “I was just very competitive, trying to stay in the points for the whole match and remain solid.” 

The best win of Khachanov’s career prior to today also came in Barcelona, when he defeated then-World No. 17 Bautista Agut last year to reach the third round. The victory today puts the 20-year-old Russian into his first ATP World Tour quarter-final of 2017 and marks the first time he’s won three consecutive matches since capturing his maiden ATP World Tour title this past October in Chengdu.

Standing between Khachanov and the final four is Horacio Zeballos, who recorded a hard-fought 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3) win over Benoit Paire. The Argentine couldn’t convert on a match point on Paire’s serve at 5-4 in the deciding set, but raced to a 5/1 lead in the tie-break and ultimately prevailed in two hours and 18 minutes.

DOUBLES

Florin Mergea and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi caused the upset of the day by upsetting top seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers 6-4, 6-4 in 64 minutes to reach the semi-finals. They’ll play the winner of the match between Lukasz Kubot and Mischa Zverev, and Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau. Kubot/Zverev won the lone first-round match of the day over fourth seeds Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez 5-7, 6-4, 10-6.

French duo Fabrice Martin and Edouard Roger-Vasselin also advanced into the final four by defeating Marcin Matkowski and Daniel Nestor 6-3, 7-6(4). They’ll take on Philipp Petzschner and Alexander Peya, who defeated Goffin and Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-3, 4-6, 10-7.