Andy Murray battles past Ivan Ljubicic to sail into the fourth round – Wimbledon Championships 2011
Fourth seeded Brit Andy Murray downed Croat Ivan Ljubicic in four setter nail biter to secure a fourth round spot at Wimbledon Championships 2011, a Grand Slam event held on grass courts at London, England. He registered a 6-4,
4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4) victory over the 32-year-old Croat in front of his home crowd on Friday.
The British number one showed top notch performance to outclass a former world number three in four sets to book a fourth round spot at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Murray lost to the Czech on their last meeting
at Beijing but he outclassed Ljubicic on their ninth meeting. Murray also extended the lead in the head-to-head series by 6-3 against the Croat.
The Scot confidently entered the opening set at SW19 and held on to opening serve with impressive display of skills. He held his following serves until he lost his way in the seventh game after losing the serve to love. However,
Murray quickly roared back by striking off next three games to bag the opener with a 6-4 win in three-quarter of an hour.
Fitting reply from Ljubicic was seen in the second set as he hit massive returns and with a help from a double fault committed by the Scot in the end, the Croat earned the first blood. The Croat then held on to his remaining serves
by re-kindling old spark from that in 2006 when he was at his career high rank at number three. He eventually sealed the set with a 6-4 score line in thirty-nine minutes.
The frustrated Dunblane native thundered back in the third set as he unleashed barrage of groundstrokes to reel off first five games in a row before Ljubicic could hold on. Murray then held on to his serve in the last game earn
a breadstick in twenty-nine minutes.
Both players played their best tennis in the final set. Murray got the desiderated serves in the fifth game and took the initial lead. He was serving for the match at 5-4 but he squandered it to square the scores at 5-5. The set
went to a tie-breaker where Murray dominated to clinch the set with a 7-6(4) in almost an hour.
"I thought it was an excellent match, both of us played well," said Murray. "I played one bad game first game of the second set, apart from that I thought I (played to a) very high standard, I hit the ball from the back of the
court way better than the last match."
Up next for the Scot is seventeenth seeded French Richard Gasquet who downed lucky loser, Simone Bolelli in straight sets to reach this spot.
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