Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Murray eases into Miami quarters

Sony Ericsson Open, Miami
Date: 25 March to 5 April Coverage: Updates on BBC Radio 5 Live, live scores/text commentaries on BBC Sport website & mobiles. Live on Sky Sports.


Andy Murray in Miami
Murray overcame Troicki in straight sets in St Petersburg last year

Andy Murray made brutally short work of Viktor Troicki with a 6-1 6-0 thrashing to progress to the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.

The Scot dominated the opener with his opponent claiming his final service game to narrowly avoid a whitewash.

And Troicki, his serve malfunctioning badly, was further humiliated in the second set and failed to win a game.

Murray will face either his Australian Open conqueror Fernando Verdasco or Czech Radek Stepanek in the last eight.

The 23-year-old Troicki is at a career-high world ranking of 41 and is set to climb higher following his run in Florida, but he was extremely poor against Murray, who had won their only previous meeting.

Murray had started slowly in his second and third-round matches but he broke Troicki's first service game and secured a second successive break with two fine returns to move into a 4-0 lead.

The Scot had two points to complete a love set, but Troicki came up with some big serves to finally get on the board after 27 minutes. It was only a temporary reprieve, however, as Murray easily served out the set.

Troicki's Achilles heel was his serve, with his first-serve percentage at 25% in the opening set and his second serve repeatedly sitting up for his opponent to hit.

The second set continued in the same vein with Murray again taking full advantage of Troicki's woes to break in the first game. The Serbian battled hard to try to hold on to his serve but again he was unsuccessful as Murray eased to a 3-0 lead.

Troicki fought back from 0-40 to 30-40 in his next service game but another short second serve was a gift for Murray and he served out for an easy victory in less than an hour.

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