Andy Murray takes care of Andreas Seppi in straight sets on Tuesday in Miami. Next up for Murray is Marin Cilic, who ousted Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
(2) Andy Murray d. (16) Andreas Seppi 6-2, 6-4
Murray cruised into the Sony Open quarterfinals by dismissing Seppi in one hour and 26 minutes during fourth-round action on Tuesday afternoon. The third-ranked Scot took control right away by breaking in the very first game of the match. That would have been enough for Murray in the opening set because he dropped a mere four points on serve, but for good measure he added another break at 5-2. Murray promptly closed things out and converted his first set point with an ace.
Seppi appeared to get on track in the second after saving three break points right at the beginning. Miami’s No. 16 seed held his next three service games with ease, but he cracked under the pressure at 4-4. Seppi had a game point at 40-30 only to spray three straight unforced errors and donate the break to his opponent. Murray served out the match at 5-4 after thwarting one break point with a big serve. Next up for the 2009 champion is Marin Cilic.
(9) Marin Cilic d. (6) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-6(4)
Cilic continued his stellar run in tiebreakers to get past Tsonga after one hour and 48 minutes on Tuesday in Miami. Tsonga played with fire on his own serve through the opening set while getting no looks of any kind in his return game, but he saved the first four breaks he faced. It caught up to him at 5-6, when Cilic once again applied pressure and forced multiple errors from Tsonga to take the set.
Cilic momentarily lost focus to open the second, turning in a dismal service game to get broken for the first time. Tsonga, however, returned the favor at 2-1 with a poor effort of his own. The eighth-ranked Frenchman had a 0-40 opportunity on his opponent’s serve at 3-3, but Cilic won five consecutive points to hold. After five more holds, a tiebreaker had to decide it. Although he gave back a quick mini-break with a forehand in the net, Cilic never lost control of the ‘breaker. The world No. 11 won two more return points for 6-2 and finally converted his third match point after blowing one on his own serve. It ended with Tsonga dumping a drop-volley in the net at 4-6.
Cilic, who improved to 8-1 in tiebreakers this season (the only one he lost was in Davis Cup action), finished with two aces and one double-fault. He converted two of seven break chances en route to victory.
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