Andy Murray struggles against Juan Ignacio Chela in the quarterfinals – French Open 2011
Top Brit Andy Murray battled past Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela in straight, yet not so simple, sets to secure a semi-final berth at the 2011 Roland Garros in Paris, France on Wednesday, June 1st.
The fourth seeded Scot took almost three hours to secure a 7-6(2), 7-5, 6-2 victory over the Argentine veteran.
Meeting for the third straight year at the Roland Garros, boasting a remarkable 6-1 lead against Chela, Murray started a bit slow in the opener.
Although the Brit managed to hold his first game, he was broken in the third game to trail Chela 1-2. Another break later in the fourth fifth game, Murray was trailing 1-4. Fighting back, Murray broke the Argentine twice to level
the score at five games each. It seemed the Brit had finally found his footing in the game.
A successful hold of their serves forced the first set into a tiebreaker. Capitalising on Chela’s errors, Murray rushed into an early lead as he led the tiebreaker 5-1. Serving for the set at 6-2, Murray hit a powerful backhand
down the line to clinch the tiebreaker 7-2.
In a hard fought set, Murray took almost seventy minutes as he hit twenty one winners with three aces to clinch a total of 49 to 43 points and go one up in the set score.
Carrying over his form in the second set, Murray broke Chela in the first game to lead the score 2-0. Another break later in the fifth game, Murray extended his lead to 4-1. However, fighting back hard Chela bounced back and levelled
the score at five games each. A lucky break in the eleventh game put Murray in the lead, serving for the set at 6-5. Four errors from Chela in the twelfth game allowed the Brit to clinch the second set 7-5.
Another hard fought set, the Scot took almost sixty eight minutes as he hit twenty two winners and recorded an acceptable 68% win on his first serve to secure a 2-0 lead in the set score.
A strong start in the third set for the Brit, as he rushed to an early 3-1 lead which he extended to 5-2 moments later. An error from Chela and a close to the net shot from the Brit, allowed the latter to successfully serve out
the set at 5-2, sealing his hard fought straight sets victory.
Murray moves on ahead to play reigning world number one Rafael Nadal in the semi-final here later in the event. Nadal moved on ahead after defeating Swede Robin Soderling in straight sets earlier.
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