Andy Murray demolishes Santiago Giraldo to reach last eight – Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell 2012
Second seed, Andy Murray, did not face any difficulty in beating Santiago Giraldo of Colombia in straight sets in the third round at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell on Thursday. It took the Brit just an hour and 14 minutes to
down Giraldo 6-1, 6-2.
Murray made the ideal start to the match, as he captured first three games of the opener to go up 3-0. The British allowed his opponent to win just one in the entire set, sealing it 6-1.
The world number four bombarded four aces and kept his first serve percentage at 63, converting 14 of the 17 of them into points. He lost only one point on the second returns, clinching three of the four of them. The right-hander
avoided both of the break threats he came across and capitalised on two of the four opportunities he created in the opener.
In a similar fashion to the first set, Murray broke the Colombian’s opening serve in the second and consolidated on it to grab a 2-0 advantage. Though, Giraldo bounced back this time to square off the score at 2-2. It was all Murray
show after that, as the Brit snatched four consecutive games to win 6-2.
The Brit smacked five aces but also committed a couple of double faults. He delivered 61 percent of the first serves, pocketing 11 of the 14 points on them. The 24-year-old inflicted biggest damage on Giraldo’s second serves, as
he won nine of the 11 points on them in the second set.
Murray said, after the match, "I started the match well. He’s played quite a lot of matches on clay this year, so I was expecting quite a lot of long rallies and there was quite a lot at the start. But once I got ahead started
putting pressure on him, he started going for more and made more mistakes."
The Brit is pitted against 11th seed, Milos Raonic, in the quarter-final. The Canadian stunned one of the home favourites, Nicolas Almagro, in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 in the third round.
Expecting a tough match against Raonic, Murray said, “He’s obviously got a huge serve and a very good game. He can obviously dictate the match, so you need to make sure you play a solid match. There’s a chance that he’s going to
give you the odd opportunity by making mistakes and you need to be ready to take that."
This will be the first meeting between Murray and Raonic on the ATP World Tour.
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