Andy Murray ended his losing streak on Monday as he defeated Yannick Hanfmann 7-5 6-4 in a “ridiculous match” after taking more than half an hour to finish the first four games. The world No 40 now has a window of opportunity after eighth seed Sebastian Korda was knocked out in the first round, with the draw opening up for Murray to go on a run.
Murray had lost his last three matches coming into the Swiss Indoors but he managed to come through a marathon opening set to advance to the second round. The beginning of the match was a rollercoaster with endless deuces, as the pair were only at 2-1 when 35 minutes passed. By the 45-minute mark, it was only 3-2.
The Brit finally managed to break Hanfmann and raced to a 5-2 lead but he was broken while serving for the set a game later. Murray narrowly edged out an 84-minute set 7-5 when he broke again in the last game. “It was tough,” he said afterwards.
“The first four or five games were something like 45 minutes. I don’t remember having that really before, it was ridiculous. And then had a chance at the end of the first set, didn’t get it and just managed to sneak a break at the end.”
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It was a similar story in the second set, where Murray was broken by the world No 51 while serving for the match but broke straight back to win in two hours and 20 minutes. He added: “Up again in the second, couldn’t quite finish it, but did well to respond and get the break at the end. Played a great point obviously on the match point to finish.
“Happy to come through. He’s had a brilliant year and has been playing very well, so it’s a good result.” Murray will now face Tomas Etcheverry – who he practised with at the start of the week – for a spot in the quarter-final.
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The former world No 1 has a good opportunity to make up some ranking points before the end of the season with a strong showing in Basel. And his draw has opened up after Etcheverry knocked out No 8 seed Korda, who could have been Murray’s next opponent.
By reaching the second round, Murray has already successfully defended the ranking points he picked up at last year’s Swiss Indoors. He has just 10 more points to defend for the rest of the year – a first-round loss at the Paris Masters – and can make some good strides towards the top 32 in the world to meet his goal of being seeded for a Grand Slam.
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