Murray’s title target

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:07

The world number four dominated against the Latvian to run out a 6-4 6-2 winner as he looks to follow up his triumph at the Madrid Masters.

The 21-year-old told BBC Sport: “I’m going to try my best to win the tournament. When you keep winning, it gives you a lot of confidence.”

He added: “He is very unpredictable in his game style. He had a couple of good shots to break me, but I broke him in the next game, so it wasn’t a problem.”

The win was Murray’s 50th of the season and he has run into a rich vein of form – one he fully intends to extend.

“Fifty wins is a lot on the tour these days, it’s a long season,” Murray told atptennis.com. “I feel pretty fresh which I think is the main thing because I’ve had some time off after the US Open. Fifty wins is good and I hope I can keep it going.”

World number 50 Gulbis defied the gulf in class between the pair in the opening exchanges and matched Murray up until the eighth game of the first set.

Three errors from the 20-year-old presented Murray with a golden chance to break the Latvian. Gulbis hit back to take the game to deuce before Murray eventually broke to open up a 5-3 lead. Gulbis then broke back but Murray responded immediately by breaking his opponent’s serve to love to take the first set 6-4.

The pair’s only previous meeting had been at the Queen’s Club this summer when Murray needed three sets to overcome Gulbis, but he only needed two this time to overcome his opponent.

He had to survive an early scare in the first game of the second set when Gulbis squandered a break point, but the top seed and defending champion held his nerve and broke his faltering opponent twice, in the sixth and eighth games, to reach the last eight.

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