Andy Murray conjured up an unlikely three-set victory over Grigor Dimitrov to reach the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Open.
The newly-promoted world number two was broken by his Bulgarian opponent in the very first game of a three-hour encounter and only just managed to drag 16th seed Dimitrov back from a double-break lead to draw level in the eighth game of the second set.
Murray then forced a decider by comfortably winning a tie-break but the tide would turn against the Scot once again.
The 2013 Wimbledon champion was a break up after two games, yet Dimitrov rallied to win five straight games, wresting back the initiative before a crucial, fascinating 32nd game.
The Bulgarian looked more than ready to break Murray and seal his progress, enjoying two match points during a frantic display of rallying and cross-court counter-punching, but it was not to be.
Murray somehow held his serve, broke Dimitrov, and held once more to clinch a 4-6 7-6 (7/3) 7-5 victory.
A sixth career win over Dimitrov means Murray, whose triumph at the Rogers Cup saw him leapfrog Roger Federer in the battle to replace Novak Djokovic at the top of the ATP Rankings, gets the opportunity to face French number two Richard Gasquet in the last eight at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
That engagement will come around rather quickly for Murray, as it is scheduled to commence at 2.30pm local time on Friday.
But the Scot, who will tackle either Federer or Spain's Feliciano Lopez if he reaches the semi-finals, insists he feels ready to challenge all comers.
"If you want to win the big competitions, you'll have to come through difficult situations," Murray said. "Last year, I didn't come through enough of them.
"I lost a lot of matches from winning positions, and this year I managed to turn that around, which was very positive."
Dimitrov, who let a 5-2 lead slip away in the dramatic final set, added: "I was happy with the way I played at least, but that's about it.
"I had too many opportunities. That's the only thing. If that you have many and you don't win, that's it.
"Everything else felt pretty good. The body held up well for three hours, so good things ahead."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel