Andy Murray extends his winning streak to 21 after defeating Bernard Tomic in the quarterfinals of the Western and Southern Open. It wasn’t a bad match from the Australian who played some solid tennis but wasn’t able to convert his chances. There was only two breaks in the whole match, one on each set. In just 79 minutes, Murray booked a spot in the semifinals after defeating Tomic 6-4, 6-4. In the next round, he will meet, Milos Raonic.
Tomic wastes his chances as Murray recovers from a slow start
The Australian was able to hold in the opening game helped by the mistakes of Murray. The unforced errors continued, even committing the first double fault as the Brit tried to hold his first serve. Tomic was the first one to get a chance to break after a wide ball from Murray, but the top seed saved it after hitting a forehand winner. Two points later, Murray held to level-up to 1-1. Tomic was covering the court as he tried to attack Murray by coming to the net, the strategy worked as he had no problems to hold.
However, after some erratic games, Murray finally had a fantastic game of serve in which he outplayed the Australian to tie the scoreline at 2-2. The brilliance of the top seed continued in the following game as the Brit quickly got himself three break points, despite his best attempts Tomic was not capable of saving his serve as the first break of the match happened after the Australian hit a double fault.
Leading 3-2, Murray played another solid game of tennis to consolidate the break. At this point, the top seed had won the last twelve points but Tomic broke that streak after hitting a great serve that the Brit failed to return. After a smash winner, Tomic held to be 3-4. However, Murray was not willing to let go of the advantage he now had and lost only one point on his serve to be one game away from taking the first set.
After a hold from Tomic, it was now on the Brit to serve for the first set. The Australian knew this was his last chance to break and get back into the set and he was close as he got a break point that sparked the frustration of his opponent. Murray put that aside and forced a deuce after hitting a great serve that Tomic left on the net. After another great serve, Murray closed the set with his trademark shot, a lob.
Murray finds the break at the best time
Despite the disappointment of not being able to convert that break point in the last game, Tomic started the second set with a hold to lead 1-0. The serve of the Scotsman only improved in the start of this set as he held to love to be 1-1. In the third game, Tomic played some brilliant points as he attempted to finish all the points on the net which turned out to be a success as he held to be up 2-1. Just in this set, the Scotsman’s percentage of the first set had improved from a 56 percent to a 71 percent which helped him to dictate the points and avoid giving chances to his opponent. But Murray wasn’t the only one who had improved his serve as Tomic used his own serve to put pressure on the top seed and with that being able to hold to love to lead 3-2.
Once again, Murray let go opportunities to close his service game without the need of a deuce, which was worrying for him as Tomic only seemed to get better. The Australian only lost one point on his serve to again have the momentarily lead of 4-3. Not giving anything away, Murray continued the good streak and held to tie the scoreboard to 4-4. Up until this point, neither player had faced a break point. It was the Scotsman who created the first chance to break as he took advantage of the most erratic game of the Australian to get three break points. A forehand into the net handed the first and only break so far in this set. Just like in the first set, Tomic needed to break Murray if he wanted to stay in the match but the top seed didn’t hesitate to close the match on his serve followed a wide return from the Australian.
Next for Andy Murray
In the semifinals, Andy Murray will face a familiar opponent, Milos Raonic of Canada. They have played each other on ten occasions, Murray having won seven of those. Their last meeting happened only a few months ago at Wimbledon final where Murray won in straight sets to get his third Grand Slam title. Their last encounter on outdoor hard was also this year at the Australian Open semifinal where Murray won in five tough sets.