Vienna, October 16, 2014
In a bid for crucial points in the ATP Race to London, David Ferrer and Andy Murray haven taken last minute wild cards into the Erste Bank Open and finally stepped into action for their second round matches on Thursday.
Vienna’s number one, David Ferrer, only faced a tough opening set in his encounter against Tobias Kamke. The Spanish world number five had to wait until the twelfth game to capitalize on his first break point of the match to take the opening frame. In the following Ferrer dominated and served out after 88 minutes winning 7-5, 6-1 to face Ivo Karlovic on Friday. “Tobias is a very good and aggressive player, who made it very difficult for me in the opening set. In the second I was more solid and I simply played better,” Ferrer said. “I expect I very tough match against Ivo tomorrow. The court and the balls are very fast, this will make it even harder. First services and the returns are very important here,” the Spaniard explained.
David Ferrer made it into the quarterfinal
Andy Murray made a winning debut in Vienna beating Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 6-4 in their first Tour meeting. The world number 11 had a good challenger in person of the Canadian but lost his service only once in the entire match. After one hour and 39 minutes, Murray served out and advanced to the next round. “Vasek serves pretty well and also moves well on the court. That’s why I expected a tough match today. I’m happy that I was able to gain a break at the end of each set. The match was closer than the stats might say,” Murray told after his first match indoors since Rotterdam in February and will meet Jan-Lennard Struff in the quarterfinal. The 24-year-old German defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky in a two hour and 25 minutes fight winning 7-6, 2-6, 7-6.
Andy Murray after today’s match in Vienna
In-form Benjamin Becker, who reached the semi-final at the ATP 500 event in Tokyo two weeks ago, took out last year’s finalist Robin Haase through a straight set victory winning 6-3, 6-3 in just under one hour. The German veteran didn’t face a break point in the entire encounter against the Dutch and is going to face fourth-seed Philipp Kohlschreiber next.
Qualifier Viktor Troicki continues his way back into the top-100. The Serbian world number 127 was very efficient when he saved both of the only two break points he faced to defeat fifth-seed Lukas Rosol in only 54 minutes 6-3, 6-2.
Viktor Troicki
Troicki will meet Tomaz Bellucci in the quarterfinal. The Brazilian rallied to beat third-seeded Feliciano López 6-7, 6-1, 6-4. The 33-year-old Spaniard has reached a career-high 14th position in the ATP World Rankings this week, after he had defeated Rafael Nadal to reach the semi-finals at the Masters 1000 event in Shanghai last Saturday and also had the better start in today’s encounter. López saved three set points in the first set but lost eight straight games from 1-1 in the second frame as well as the first 13 points of the final set. Bellucci served out after two hours and two minutes.
