An emotional Andy Murray has secured his place in the last eight of an ATP tournament for the first time in 13 months after battling past Romania’s Marius Copril 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(4), in a late-night epic at the Citi Open in Washington.
Thunderstorms and heavy rain delayed the start of play at the ATP 500 event on Thursday. Resulting in Murray not taking to the court until almost midnight. Despite the lengthy delay, Murray managed to battle into the last eight after coming through a roller coaster encounter. Overcoming some impressive play from his rival, which featured 20 aces and 58 winners.
Taking part in only his third tournament since returning from a hip injury, Murray was pushed to his limits both mentally and physically by some impressive play from Copril. During the opening set, the three-time grand slam champion saw a 5-0 lead in the tiebreaker disappear. A seven-point streak in Copril’s favor rewarded him the first set.
Despite the blip, Murray managed to battle back in the second set by breaking twice on route to levelling the match. Reviving his match hopes. Still, a win was by no means guaranteed as numerous momentum changes occurred throughout the final set.
Initially, it appear as if Murray was ease through the final set. A weary looking backhand from Copril slammed into the net to elevate the Brit to a 4-2 lead. However, some tentative play from Murray in the following game enabled his Romanian rival to break him for the first time in the match. With the little disparity between the two, a decisive tiebreaker took place as the time approached 3am.
Weathering the storm, Murray close out the match with the help of a mini break for 4-3 after hitting a soft overhead volley. He was then able to work his way to two match points with the help of a duo of serves that Copril was unable to return. Then after more than three hours of play, Murray sealed victory when another Copril backhand ploughed into the net.
It was clear how much the win means to the 31-year-old. Almost instantly after the victory, he burst out into tears. Sobbing into his towel whilst still on the court. The marathon victory saw him hit 18 winners to 32 unforced errors as he saved five out of the six break points he faced.
“Not a whole lot, really, the emotions coming out at the end of an extremely long day and a long match,” AFP quoted Murray as saying about what made him so emotional.
In the quarter-finals, Murray will take on Alex de Minaur. The Australian knocked out South Korean eighth seed Hyeon Chung 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
And this is what it means to @andy_murray to be back playing and winning epic matches in the sport he loves! 🇬🇧
📹 @TennisTV pic.twitter.com/4W8ByLuMZf
— LTA (@the_LTA) August 3, 2018
