Ex- Wimbledon champion John McEnroe was less than impressed when Seppi, followed by Murray, stopped play to call for a physiotherapist during Saturday’s game. He said: “Sometimes we play for four or five hours and you’re drinking so many fluids, you can’t get rid of them altogether – what if someone needs to go?”
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Seppi had stoked the fires ahead of play by suggesting that beating Murray would be nowhere near as impressive as his Australian Open win over Roger Federer in January. The Italian needs to try and restrict Murray’s backhand and defend his line on first serve, he will need to keep an eye on varied spin.
The Briton raced out of the blocks, clinching an instant break in the opening game with a blistering forehand victor before raising the roof with another forehand, this time a passing shot that sailed past Seppi at the net.
“He has the crowd behind him”.
“Obviously he served extremely well this tournament”, said Murray.
Despite losing six straight games on Saturday due to a shoulder complaint, Andy Murray insisted it is not a “major concern”.
Taking treatment for a leg injury at 2-1, Seppi emerged unhindered and completely unrecognisable as a Murray second serve flew out and gave away the break.
Kvitova said it would take “a few days, a few weeks maybe” to get over the result, as the champion of 2011 and 2014 bowed out.
The latter occurred in Murray’s following game too, as Seppi against saw three break points in an unprecedented turn of events.
The third-round match ended shortly before 10:30 p.m. after it was moved from Court 1 because of bad light during the fourth set.
“I’m looking forward to testing myself against the best in the country on the grass and it will be a fantastic experience and great for my development”.
Murray looked on course for a comfortable victory after cruising to a two-set lead but two medical time-outs, one for each player, prompted two remarkable shifts in momentum as the Scot eventually came through 6-2 6-2 1-6 6-1.
After the match, Murray was clear he did not doubt that Seppi had been injured, saying: ‘Andreas isn’t like that.’ He also denied there had been any gamesmanship on his part and said he rarely calls for a time-out.
The first match on Centre Court sees the Williams sisters do battle at SW19 yet again.
Serving for the match, the crowd were jubilant as they anticipated victory for their home favourite who had struggled so horribly in the third set.
“Once I had the treatment, I served much better and way harder”, said Murray, who joked that it was not “that pleasant” to have 90kg of Sniteman lying on top of him and rocking his body from side to side to release the tension.
But back to the tennis.
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Seppi fought valiantly and must be given credit for getting back into the match by winning a set, but he was never expected to trouble the British number one today in truth.
