Andy Murray advanced to the semi-finals of the Rogers Cup on Friday night with a rain-delayed 6-4 6-4 triumph over defending champion Jo-WIlfried Tsonga in Montreal. “Hopefully I’ll be able to rise to the occasion and play the best match of the week”.
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6-0, 6-3, 6-0, 6-1. They thought he was tanking, not trying.
In fact, the 87th-ranked qualifier outplayed his former junior rival for much of the first two sets.
Today’s performance was up with Murray’s best.
“I was not thinking about the match point, I was just thinking about my serve, where I was going to serve, what I want to do, that’s it”, Chardy said. For example, it is no time at all since those two giants of the game vied with one another for the most Masters titles. Everything was sore these couple days.
With the win, Murray will replace Roger Federer as world number two in Monday’s new ATP rankings.
“It’s nice to be back (at No 2)”, said Murray. I can’t remember the exact year, but it was a number of years ago.
“Obviously he saw me in the corridor yesterday”.
“It’s good to get back close to the top”.
Chardy had said he would try something different this time.
Djokovic has also had major moments in Montreal.
Djokovic, who will be seeking to win the one Masters 1000 title he has yet to claim in his career, has a potentially tricky path to the latter stages though. Gulbis double-faulted on the next point and it was all Djokovic after he took the tiebreaker.
It was previously thought the world No. 10 would enter into doubles at this week’s Western & Southern Open in the hopes of getting more matches in.
“It the (elbow trouble) comes and goes, now is not very pleasant”. Jeremy played well, but I was totally concentrated and stayed in control of the baseline.
It’s likely that Djokovic will feel little pressure in this match after saving match points in his last one.
The 41st-ranked Kyrgios drew shock for a comment he made on court while passing Wawrinka concerning the personal life of his 30-year-old opponent. “I think it stopped after awhile. Whoever it was… he was probably on the seventh sky somewhere”, said the Serb.
“I want to play well for Leander too”. Murray heads into the match with a 4-1 edge on head-to-heads, a series that includes a victory in their lone meeting this season. Murray is the only other victor of a Masters event in 2015, taking the title in Madrid where Djokovic did not play.
“Well, he continues to annoy me”.
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Djokovic levelled at a set apiece and re-established order as he ran away with the third set for the win.
