TENNIS in DEPTH.

Andy Murray on Wednesday night survived his second consecutive scare on Pat Rafter Arena when forced to dig extremely deep to overcome Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-0 in two hours to book a place in the Brisbane International quarterfinals. It was almost a carbon copy of his first-round win over world No.91 Mikhail Kukushkin, again appearing in discomfort and frustrated as he lost the first set to Muller before storming back late in the second. Murray paid credit to the world No.54′s big serve but admitted he was far off his best fitness after ending 2011 early with a groin problem. While last year’s Australian Open runner-up felt his body was gradually improving, Murray didn’t expect to be at his peak until the opening round at Melbourne Park.

“I want to be feeling 100 per cent on Monday in 10 or 11 days, that’s the goal, but with each match your body’s going to feel better,” said the 24-year-old. “The more matches I can get this week the better so it’s been a good start.” With main rivals Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer playing in the Middle East, Murray will now meet popular Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in his Friday quarterfinal and hopes to finally feel some nerves. He said it was only when he was down a break point to go down 5-3 in the second set that the adrenaline started to flow and helped him click into gear. Murray rallied, sent the set to a tiebreak, took control with an amazing reverse backhand flick on the run and then swept through the third set. “They’re the sort of points I need to be repeating over and over,” he said. “That point was a big one and it gave me more confidence in movement and I didn’t feel any soreness and stiffness and I felt I loosened up a little bit after that.”

Bookmark It

John Isner made a winning return to the men’s tour with a hard-fought triumph against Gilles Muller at the Atlanta Tennis Championships.

Isner wrote himself into tennis folklore at SW19 last month by defeating Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in an 11-hour, 183-game epic, and by any other yardstick would have considered his three-set victory against Luxembourg qualifier Muller a decent workout.

The giant American demonstrated the fighting spirit that served him so well in the first-round encounter at the All England Club by saving match points in both the second and third sets before prevailing 4-6 7-6 (8/6) 7-6 (9/7).

The 6ft 9in Isner fired 33 aces to 29 from Muller in a big-hitting encounter, and the former University of Georgia student admitted he was indebted to the partisan crowd for getting him across the line despite failing to break his opponent’s serve.

“The match was pretty ugly to be honest, but I was proud how I competed and the crowd helped in that regard,” said Isner, who is seeded second for this event and was handed a bye in the first round.

“I was down break points a couple of times in the second set – they were kind of baby match points with the way he was serving.”

He added: “I hadn’t seen a live ball in quite some time and Gilles was never going to give me rhythm with his lefty serve.

“I felt I was shedding the rust off in the second and third sets. I will only keep getting better. As a tennis player you need a lot of matches to play your best.

“This was one of the biggest wins of the year.”

Fellow Americans Michael Russell, Taylor Dent and Mardy Fish also advanced to the quarter-finals with second-round wins.

Russell set up a last-eight clash with Isner by defeating German Rainer Schuettler 1-6 6-2 7-5, while Dent progressed by upsetting fourth-seeded Argentinian Horacio Zeballos 4-6 6-2 6-0.

Dent will next meet Fish after the sixth seeded dispatched another American, Robby Ginepri, 6-1 7-5.

Bookmark It

Bernard Tomic will meet Gilles Muller in the 2nd round of the Aussie Open later today, and though Mueller may not be as well known as many of the other players, he seems to rise to the occasion when Grand Slams come around.

Gilles Muller’s is the ‘Cinderella story’ of tennis. He captured the attention of every tennis fan at the 2008 US Open with his progress from qualifier to quarter finalist. On the way he knocked out Tommy Haas, Nicolas Almagro and Nicolay Davydenko before falling to Roger Federer. He entered the tournament ranked 130 in the world, booked into a New York hotel for 6 days and entered the qualifying rounds of the tournament. He won three qualifiers and made it through into the main draw. He unexpectedly made it into the second week of the tournament, packing the stands with fans rooting for this underdog, and he became the most talked about player in New York. He was asked to leave his hotel, his reservation was for only six days and the hotel was fully booked, so he was forced to move across the street to another place.

Bookmark It