Andy Murray made light work of Nick Kyrgios to set up a Wimbledon quarter-final with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The world No 2 edged a tight first set before running away
with a 7-5 6-1 6-4 victory in one hour and 42 minutes on Centre Court."The first set was very tight. I managed to get the break at 6-5 but it was very tight up to that point," said Murray.
"But then in the third set, again he served a high percentage but when I was able to get the ball back in play, I was able to dictate a lot of the rallies and I managed to get an early break."
Murray, who is yet to drop a set, will next face Tsonga after his fourth-round opponent, Richard Gasquet, retired with an injury at 4-2 down in the first set.
The head-to-head record is 12-2 in Murray's favour and he has won both of their previous meetings at Wimbledon, in 2012 and 2010.
Tsonga, though, should provide more of a test than Kyrgios, whose level dropped off severely after the first set.
The Australian, who reached the quarter-finals at the All England Club in 2014, stayed with Murray on serve until the 12th game.
From 0-40 the 15th seed managed to win the next two points but then volleyed into the net to hand Murray the set.
Kyrgios could not keep pace in the second set, again volleying into the net to give away a break and then dragging a forehand wide for 5-1.
The 21-year-old started to look rushed between points and Murray closed out a 26-minute set with successive aces.
Kyrgios could not regain his composure in the third set and his frustration was compounded by an early break.
From then on there was only one winner and Murray closed out victory in style, drilling a forehand into the corner and then firing an ace out wide.
Murray, who will be playing in his ninth successive Wimbledon quarter-final, is wary of the threat from hard-hitting Tsonga.
"Tsonga is a top grass-court player and I'll need to play very well to win that one," said Murray, who is on a 26-match winning streak against French players.
"You can learn from the matches that you've played against him, see the things that worked well and try to execute that when you play him the next time."
He also shrugged off growing expectations that he can win a third major after the shock defeat of top seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic in the third round.
"Every year I play here it's the same," said the 29-year-old.
"It's not any different this year than it's been any of the other years I've been here."I try my best to win my matches, go as deep as possible. I've been playing well so far in this event but the matches as you progress get tougher."
0 comments:
Post a Comment