MUNICH, April 30, 2015
The remaining four quarterfinal spots had to be filled on Thursday at the BMW Open by FWU AG headlining world number three Andy Murray, who made a successful debut in Munich. The tournament’s top-seed remained untroubled to start his clay court campaign in the capital of Bavaria against German qualifier Mischa Zverev winning 6-2, 6-2. The Scot saved all six break points he had to face and won 75% of his first service points to seal victory in 74 minutes.
Andy Murray advanced to the semi-finals in Munich
“It’s tricky conditions here because obviously it got warmer and the last couple of days it was very cold, so you know when it’s warm the ball moves pretty quickly, also a bit due to the altitude. On the other hand, the courts had a lot of rain on and are very slow, so it is quite hard to get the timing with that. But I thought, I started the match up well today. I haven’t practiced a lot since I have been here. Due to the conditions I practiced indoors one of the days. I thought it was good to get a match on the court in doubles yesterday. The conditions here are quite different to what I was training in Barcelona,” Murray told about his singles debut in Munich and seems to feel fresh on court.
“A huge positive for me is, that my back feels good. I made some significant changes to my training, which helped my back massively this year. My back’s way better than it even was last year,” he stated
The Scot also told about his experiences attending the DFB-Cup semi-finals football match in Munich’s Allianz Arena on Tuesday evening.
“It is quite a different compared to Britain but great atmosphere. It was nice seeing that there were quite a few Dortmund fans sitting in with the Bayern Munich fans. It wasn’t very hot-style, as I think they are biggest rivals of each other. It created a nice atmosphere with a lot of respect for each other. Bayern Munich fans also showed a lot of respect for Jürgen Klopp (coach of Borussia Dortmund). Obviously, I didn’t support either of the teams but I enjoyed watching both of them, it was a very exciting match, so I am very happy I went.”
Murray was also asked about his opinion concerning Vienna becoming promoted to an ATP 500 event. “I had a good time there last year. Vienna is a very nice city. Centre Court for an indoor tournament is fantastic, the second court I think could do some improvements but overall it was a very nice tournament. It’s actually good that it has become 500 status. When I went out for dinner last week in Barcelona, I bumped in with the tournament director at the same restaurant and then he told me.”
Nonetheless, a Murray-comeback to the capital of Austria, is not guaranteed. “I don’t know yet, it’s not sure. Like I said, I had a good time there last year. That wouldn’t be against the event. Last year, I played a lot of tournaments at the end of the season, which was good for me and I needed at that time but hopefully I won’t be in the position that I need play that many matches by the end of this year, so I can be a little bit more smart with my schedule.”
Andy Murray during his post match conference
For Zverev, it was huge task taking on Murray on centre court today. “It has been a long time for me that I faced opponents like him on court, so I needed to get used to it and before this happened I was 0-4 down,” Zverev told afterwards.
“There were a couple of close games in the second set also having break point opportunities but I couldn’t capitalize. I just tried to find my own rhythm and focused on my own game, as Andy doesn’t make easy errors and you don’t get free points. Of course this is impressive.”
The German, who struggled with an injury at his right arm during the last season and dropped in rankings to 653rd position, celebrated his first ATP match win in the first round in Munich since 2013 against Jan-Lennard Struff, will continue at the ATP Challenger level the next couple of weeks playing in Aix-en-Provence and Heilbronn.
Mischa Zverev is on his comeback trail
Murray will take on Lukas Rosol in Munich’s quarterfinal for the second time on the tour with the Brit leading 1-0 in head to head records. The 29-year-old Czech defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky in the opening match on centre court today winning 7-5, 6-2 in one hour and 24 minutes.
“Playing Rosol will be quite different to today’s match. He plays with a lot of power and tries to go for his shots, which doesn’t give you much rhythm. He dictates a lot how the match goes due to his game style. He has caused some upsets before. I think he likes being the underdog. It will be tough,” Murray told about his next opponent.
Lukas Rosol celebrated a pretty comfortable victory today
Austrian qualifier Gerald Melzer, who caught Gael Monfils’ second-seed- main draw spot due to the withdrawal of the Frenchman, advanced to the his first quarterfinal on the ATP World Tour. His opponent Pablo Andújar was forced to retire at 1-4, as the Spaniard felt adductor problems at his right leg yesterday and played with a tape until he stopped after 26 minutes.
Gerald Melzer has reached his first quarterfinal on the ATP World Tour
The 24-year-old Austrian will meet his compatriot Dominic Thiem in the quarterfinals, who took out eighth seed Fabio Fognini winning 6-3, 6-0 in only 56 minutes.
“Fabio is an incredible clay court player beating Nadal twice this year, a huge talent with quick feed on the court, so I didn’t expect a result like this before the start of the match, but everything can happen when you play against him,” the Austrian youngster said.
“The first set was pretty close, I was two breaks up but it could have also gone in the other direction. Fortunately, I closed the opening set out and I think that I won almost all of the close games today,” Thiem told about the key to success.
“I played Gerald twice before on Challenger level. Both times, the matches went the distance with close results in the final set. He won one match, the other time I had the better ending. He is a good player. I think that his ranking is too low. For both of us it is a big opportunity and I am happy that one Austrian will advance to an ATP semi-final, which is not often the case,” the 21-year-old stated facing the world number 186 on Friday.
Dominic is looking forward to an all-Austrian-semi-final on Friday
