Murray Glides Like a Bird of Prey
Andy Murray beat Viktor Troicki 6-1, 6-0 to move into the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open
Andy Murray's bid to nudge past his buddy and rival Novak Djokovic into third place in the world rankings carried him into the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open with unexpected speed when he trounced one of the tour's fastest risers in less than an hour yesterday.
Murray had made slow starts and had had to battle in both his previous matches on the center court but now, banished to a distant court with very different conditions, he overcame Viktor Troicki, who has risen 72 places in a year, for the loss of only one game.
"Troicki has been playing well this week and had a very good win against [David]Nalbandian," Murray had said before the match, quite sensibly. "He's quick and has a big serve. I will have to play solid and choose the moment to be aggressive and keep changing the pace a bit."
But in fact much of Murray's progress in a 6-1, 6-0 win came courtesy of Troicki. He looked nothing like a top-50 player as he began missing with a succession of groundstrokes, especially with his pet forehand, responding with head tossing, arm-flapping and muttering, which would have triggered Murray's predatorial tactical brain into instant launch.
He denied Troicki pace, he pinned him back with solid drives and invited him in with short backhand slices and he extracted more errors from his opponent in a set than he had got from Juan Monaco and Nicolás Massú in either match.
This was a double blessing for Murray, for conditions were not at all easy. The atmosphere was humid, the proximity of a tightly packed crowd increased the feeling of claustrophobia and one corner of the court slopes fractionally down, occasionally making defensive play in long, tiring matches, a little less easy.
The court has been constructed on an old rubbish dump and sometimes scavenging buzzards with programmed memories still wheel overhead looking for food. On this occasion the only hunter was Murray and he was not about to make a meal of this.
The fourth game, in which Troicki reached game point, seemed to do most to end the Serb's resistance. He delivered three second serves and Murray smote all three for winners, making Troicki exude yet more negative body language.
He almost lost the first set to love as well, but at 0-5, 30-40, he managed a good first serve, sneaked the game and got a rousing round of applause from the crowd to encourage him – except that , in the event, he was not roused.
Murray cruised smoothly on in the second set, stroking the ground strokes, giving his dispassionate stare and reducing his error rate still further until the contest, such as it was, spluttered to its fitful end. Troicki left to a few jeers.
Earlier Djokovic, who is in the other half and has to finish no more than one round behind Murray to hang on to his world No3 ranking, improved his chances by reaching the last eight with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Tomas Berdych.
Two years ago the Serb's fortunes reached a zenith as he beat the Briton for the loss of only one game before going on to win the title here. But in the last nine months things have changed dramatically and Djokovic has, he recently admitted, been searching for confidence.
The extent to which he has regained it should be better tested in his next encounter, against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The Frenchman has won their last four encounters.
Murray had made slow starts and had had to battle in both his previous matches on the center court but now, banished to a distant court with very different conditions, he overcame Viktor Troicki, who has risen 72 places in a year, for the loss of only one game.
"Troicki has been playing well this week and had a very good win against [David]Nalbandian," Murray had said before the match, quite sensibly. "He's quick and has a big serve. I will have to play solid and choose the moment to be aggressive and keep changing the pace a bit."
But in fact much of Murray's progress in a 6-1, 6-0 win came courtesy of Troicki. He looked nothing like a top-50 player as he began missing with a succession of groundstrokes, especially with his pet forehand, responding with head tossing, arm-flapping and muttering, which would have triggered Murray's predatorial tactical brain into instant launch.
He denied Troicki pace, he pinned him back with solid drives and invited him in with short backhand slices and he extracted more errors from his opponent in a set than he had got from Juan Monaco and Nicolás Massú in either match.
This was a double blessing for Murray, for conditions were not at all easy. The atmosphere was humid, the proximity of a tightly packed crowd increased the feeling of claustrophobia and one corner of the court slopes fractionally down, occasionally making defensive play in long, tiring matches, a little less easy.
The court has been constructed on an old rubbish dump and sometimes scavenging buzzards with programmed memories still wheel overhead looking for food. On this occasion the only hunter was Murray and he was not about to make a meal of this.
The fourth game, in which Troicki reached game point, seemed to do most to end the Serb's resistance. He delivered three second serves and Murray smote all three for winners, making Troicki exude yet more negative body language.
He almost lost the first set to love as well, but at 0-5, 30-40, he managed a good first serve, sneaked the game and got a rousing round of applause from the crowd to encourage him – except that , in the event, he was not roused.
Murray cruised smoothly on in the second set, stroking the ground strokes, giving his dispassionate stare and reducing his error rate still further until the contest, such as it was, spluttered to its fitful end. Troicki left to a few jeers.
Earlier Djokovic, who is in the other half and has to finish no more than one round behind Murray to hang on to his world No3 ranking, improved his chances by reaching the last eight with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Tomas Berdych.
Two years ago the Serb's fortunes reached a zenith as he beat the Briton for the loss of only one game before going on to win the title here. But in the last nine months things have changed dramatically and Djokovic has, he recently admitted, been searching for confidence.
The extent to which he has regained it should be better tested in his next encounter, against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The Frenchman has won their last four encounters.
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