Andy Murray faces the prospect of another late finish against Grigor Dimitrov on Thursday after battling past Mardy Fish as well as the rain, thunder and lightning at the Cincinnati Masters. He came back from a set down and fought off 35 aces to beat Karlovic 6-7(2), 7-6(5), 7-6(5), capturing the win after Karlovic double-faulted on match point in the final tiebreak.
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The Scot saw his serve broken four times in total by the soon-to-retire Fish, which will be a cause for concern as the 2012 US Open champion looks to regain his crown at the end of the month.
Cincinnati is the only Masters tournament that Djokovic hasn’t won over the years.
Djokovic will play Belgium’s world No14 David Goffin in the next round.
However, he held his own in the first set against Murray and managed to force a second-set tie-break having surrendered a 4-3 lead.
“[In Montreal last week], in the quarter-finals, I didn’t compete as well as I wanted to”, said Nadal, who was eliminated in straight sets by Kei Nishikori in Canada. “Today has been a tennis of ups and downs and I definitely need to improve if I want to go far”.
Venus Williams had to wait out a rain delay of more than two hours before beating Zarina Diyas, 7-6 (6), 6-4.
Elsewhere, Spain’s former world number one Rafael Nadal was made to work hard for his 6-3 6-4 win over Jeremy Chardy, finally getting past the Frenchman by converting his fifth match point.
Richard Gasquet advanced to the Round of 16 with a 7-6(5), 6-2 victory over Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis.
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“He takes the ball incredibly early and the ball comes off his racquet so quick sometimes”.
