Murray Moves On At Gijon Open

Andy Murray (photo: Mateo Villalba/Gijon Open)

GIJON/STARNBERG, October 13, 2022

Andy Murray overcame a one-set deficit to reach the quarterfinals of the Gijon Open. The British wild card entry rallied past Pedro Cachin of Argentina 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(3) on Thursday.

Murray withstood 13 aces and broke his opponent’s serve three times to prevail after two hours and 47 minutes.

“I think I served well in the second and third sets. I fought very hard,” said Murray, who hit 31 winners and committed 19 unforced errors.

“In the first set I wasn’t playing my best and Pedro was serving very well for the first set and a half and I was really struggling to break serve. I changed a little bit the way I was returning and gave myself more opportunities to break and fought very hard to come back from a break down twice in the third set.

“I haven’t played against Pedro before, I haven’t practised with him so I didn’t know exactly how he was going to play, which makes things difficult.

Murray set up a last-eight clash with US-American Sebastian Korda, who outlasted Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

The 35-year-old World No. 46 is aiming to win his first title on the ATP Tour since he triumphed in Antwerp in 2019.

Rublev starts title bid

In other action, top seed Andrey Rublev opened his campaign in Northern Spain with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 second-round victory over Ilya Ivashka of Belarus. The World No.9 from Russia won 57 per cent of the total points played to advance in two hours and 27 minutes.

No. 4 seed Francisco Cerundolo moved past French qualifier Manuel Guinard 7-6(5), 6-2 to earn his first tour-level win since July, when he advanced to the last four at the Hamburg European Open.

The 29-year-old Argentine, who hoisted his maiden tour-level trophy in Bastad in July, will next play Austrian Dominic Thiem as a result of his one-hour and 48-minute victory.