Andy Murray won a grueling late-night contest with Grigor Dimitrov to reach his sixth consecutive Australian Open quarter-final. Murray was upset by Dimitrov in the quarter-finals of his Wimbledon title defence and Sunday’s late night thriller helped dim those memories while setting up a last eight clash with Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios. The Scot saved a set point while serving at 5-2 down in the fourth, roared back to 5-5 and broke Dimitrov to love, prompting the Bulgarian to destroy his racquet under the lights at Rod Laver Arena. Murray won 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-5. The ending was cruel for Dimitrov but well-earned for Murray, as the Scot punched a cross-court forehand into the tape on match point, with the ball dropping over to send the Bulgarian out.
“In the fourth set, I felt like he was trying to shorten a lot of the points,” Murray said of Dimitrov, who was dragged into a taxing five-set scrap by Marcos Baghdatis in the previous round. “When he got ahead, he was trying to come forward a lot. Then on my service games he was going for broke a little bit off my serves. So I felt like maybe he was tired. “So I tried to, towards the end of the set, extend the rallies. And physically I felt completely different to how I felt at the U.S. Open last year or even here last year when I played a long match, especially in cold conditions. It was like night and day.”
“I got quite lucky at the end, a couple of net cords went my way and that was the difference really,” Murray said of the gruelling 3hr 32min match on Rod Laver Arena.
“A lot of the games were close, back and forth, and the momentum was switching both ways all the time,” he said. “Grigor is an unbelievable athlete, he’s extremely quick around the court, so agile, and he gets shots that other players don’t get to and he’s got fantastic hands as well. “I’m just glad that I managed to get through it at the end.”
“I thought I played well,” said Murray. “I thought Grigor started the match extremely well. He came out very aggressive, very explosive.
“But it’s tough to keep that sort of level of intensity up. And then once I got myself into the match, I felt like I was able to dictate a lot of the points. I thought tactically I played a good match.”
Dimitrov lamented that he could have done things better and was disappointed at relinquishing his lead in the fourth set.
“If you lose, you obviously haven’t done some things right. I’m happy that I competed at a good level and it takes a player like Andy to beat me like that.
“I mean, if you lose you obviously haven’t done some things right,” he said. “I’m happy that I competed at a good level and it takes a player like Andy to beat me like that.
“I’m just disappointed because it’s not the result that I wanted. For sure I could have done things better.
Andy Murray vs Grigor Dimitrov, 25/01/2015, 09:50 GMT, Match Center
Australian Open: Andy Murray's revenge
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