Former British Number one Andy Murray set-up an intriguing round of 64 clash at the Miami Open with top seed Daniil Medvedev after easing to victory over Argentina’s Federico Delbonis.
The two-time Wimbledon champion skilfully came through 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.
At 36 in the world, on paper at least, Delbonis, would have been expected to win.
But Murray has gradually been gaining momentum in recent events, at least securing one win and avoiding the disappointment of leaving an event without a victory under his belt.
With a ranking of 85, this gradual progress must be very pleasing for the Murray camp, and also that he has so far avoided injury in Qatar, Dubai and Indian Wells.
Now standing in Andy’s way for a place in the round of 32 in Miami is none other than the recently crowned world number one, Medvedev.
Although, he has since seeded that position back to Novak Djokovic after an early exit in California last week.
The three-set loss to Gaël Monfils will give Murray hope that Medvedev is indeed beatable and he will be smelling blood.
This is exactly the kind of match Murray lives or dies by. Why? Because he is testing himself against the game’s best.
This in itself gets the best out of him.
We saw it last year when Murray was two sets to one up at the US Open against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
And had the Greek not spoilt the Briton’s momentum with some quite controversial bathroom breaks, it could well have been the biggest win of his comeback since having a career saving hip-surgery.
However, Murray rebounded from that disappointment by securing big wins against the likes of recent Indian Wells semi-finalist Carlos Alcaraz, at last year’s winter edition.
This was followed up with impressive scalps against Hubert Hurkacz in Vienna and Jannik Sinner in Stockholm.
Now Medvedev is in his sights. Could the top seed be his latest victim?
There is no doubt Murray will be feeling fresh, particularly after blitzing Delbonis in the second set to secure a straight forward victory.
He has also built up his fitness by playing a string of events. So, unlike Medvedev, he has played more tennis of late.
The other thing to consider is that Miami is the last tournament the British number three will play until most probably Stuttgart or Queen’s Club during the grass-court season.
This is after Murray decided to skip the clay-court season entirely to minimise risk of injury on the surface.
That means that this match against Medvedev holds a much higher significance for Andy personally because he will not be seen on the Tour for another two and half months, which is a long time in tennis.
You can therefore be sure that the three-time Grand Slam winner will throw everything he’s got at Medvedev and will certainly try to make life uncomfortable for him.
It promises to be a fascinating match.
