Andy Murray may not be facing the toughest competition in the world, but right now the goal is getting matches under his belt and picking up wins–and confidence–in advance of Wimbledon.
So far everything is going exactly according to plan.
Murray won the Surbiton Challenger last week, when he got through four of his five matches in straight sets. The 36-year-old Scot is getting right back in action at this week’s Nottingham Challenger and he booked his spot in the semifinals with a 7-6(2), 7-5 victory over Dominic Stricker on Friday afternoon.
“(It was a) really, really tight match today against one of the best young players in the world,” Murray said during his on-court interview. “He has a really good game; huge shots from the back of the court, but also really nice touch up at the net.
“I thought in the first-set tiebreak I played really well–came up with some really good passing shots to get me that tiebreak. In the second set I think when I broke back immediately when he went 3-1 up, I think it gave me the momentum back and I felt like I was creating a lot of chances. That’s the best I’ve played across the last two weeks in terms of how I hit the ball and that was really positive.”
Murray’s winning streak now stands at eight to begin the grass-court swing. The top seed will face third-seeded Nuno Borges in the semis on Saturday.
keep it going, Muzz
A friend got court side seat at Nottingham. She, an even bigger fan of Andy than me, said it was simply brilliant to see him in action again. Assume he’ll go to Queens where I have seen him many times.
Come on, Andy!