Match report

Marin Cilic © Tennistalk.com
ATP Masters Series Madrid
3rd round
10/16/08 1 2 Tot
hr  Marin Cilic 5 6 2 0
gb  Andy Murray 7 7 7 2
Andy Murray © Tennistalk.com

  • Murray scrapes out win over Cilic

    10/16/08 3:53 PM | Ricky Dimon
    Andy Murray survives a tough test against Marin Cilic on Thursday afternoon in Madrid. He will play either Andy Roddick or Gael Monfils in the quarterfinals.

    Andy Murray defeated Marin Cilic in the third round of the Masters Series Madrid on Thursday, and somehow needed just two sets to do it. Murray pulled out both set one and set two--both of which featured plenty of clutch play as well as meltdowns--to triumph 7-5, 7-6(2) in one hour and 51 minutes.

    Nothing was easy about this for Murray right from the start. The Scot serve poorly in the first set and Cilic took advantage for a one-break advantage. That allowed him to serve for the set at 5-4 and he promptly stormed out to a 40-0 lead to hold three set points. Always a fighter, Murray saved all of them and broke in shocking fashion to level things at 5-5. Cilic could not recover from letting control slip out of his grasp, and he dropped serve again at 5-6 to throw away the set.

    The end of set two was equally excruciating. No breaks of serve came until Cilic served at 5-3, when a solid return game by Murray and a slew of errors from Cilic allowed the No. 4 seed to serve for the match. He did not come close to making that happen as the 6'6'' Croat broke with ease. Nonetheless, that turned out to be the 6'6'' Croat's only shining moments during the critical stages of this entire encounter. After three easy holds for 6-6, another end-of-set collapse out of Cilic sealed the underdog's fate. Several forehand errors and one double-fault donated a 6-1 lead to his opponent and Murray closed out the proceedings on his second match point.

    Murray will face either Andy Roddick or Gael Monfils for a spot in the semifinals. He is 4-2 against the American and 1-1 versus the Frenchman.

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