Murray the comeback king again
Originally published on: 26/02/10 11:59
The British number one and sixth seed repeated his comeback against Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon earlier this summer as he rallied to a 6-7 (5-7), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, 6-3 victory over the 48th-ranked Melzer in three hours and 52 minutes at Flushing Meadows in New York.
When Murray defeated Gasquet the win saw him reach his first grand slam quarter-final and this victory matches his best performance at the US Open – he reached the last 16 before losing to Nikolay Davydenko in 2006.
Murray appeared the more confident of the two as their match got under way on the Grandstand Stadium but Melzer proved a stubborn and talented opponent, taking the first set on a tie-break.
A year since going out at the same stage to the lower ranked Korean Hyung-Taik Lee, Murray found himself serving to save the second set at 4-5 and 15-40 down. He saved one set point but Melzer was not to be denied and Murray trooped off at the changeover two sets in arrears.
The third went to a tie-break and at 5-5, Murray sent down an ace to earn set point and he converted it on the Melzer serve, crowning a long rally, in which was sent scrambling all along the baseline by his opponent, with a backhand winner down the line.
Murray got off to a great start in the fourth set by breaking Melzer’s serve to go 2-0 up and never looked back as Melzer appeared to lose heart.
Melzer saved two set points on his way to holding serve but Murray was 5-1 to the good and serving to level the match, something he achieved with an ace.
At 3-3 in the fifth Murray gained sight of the finishing post as he broke Melzer’s serve, powerfully returning the Austrian’s second serve and seeing the response hit long before turning to the crowds behind him, clenching both fists and shouting in celebration.
He won the next game on serve to leave Melzer serving to save the match at 3-5 down. Murray saved two game points before getting to match point and he sealed the match with a forehand winner that a weary Melzer could not chase down.
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