Andy Murray eases into US Open fourth round with straight-sets win

If Andy Murray hadn’t recovered from his five-set, second-round marathon against Adrian Mannarino on his off day from competition, the Scot showed he had made sufficient progress in his relatively breezy third round affair against Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci late on Saturday at the Arthur Ashe stadium.

“It’s tough to see”, Isner said of Sock, whom he often has practiced with at Saddlebrook Resort in Wesley Chapel.

Andy Murray rejoices after his victory in the second round. After falling 2-0 behind however he swiftly hit back, seeing out the opening set without falling behind again. Murray avenged his defeat to the left-hand Brazilian in their lone prior meeting at the 2011 Madrid Open. Since then, Murray had won in all their succeeding matches including twice this season at the Miami Open 6-4 3-6 6-3 and the Aegon Championships 6-3 6-4. If I was the lucky loser, I’d be delighted to have the chance to play for the second-round prize money.

In his past ten matches, Murray has a win-loss record of 9-1 with the 3rd seed’s only loss coming at the hands of 2nd seed Roger Federer during the semifinals of the Cincinnati Masters 4-6, 6-7.

Speaking after the match, Murray said: “He’s extremely tough”.

However, the number three seed hit back immediately as he upped the ante with his grounstrokes across the court, while a double fault from the Brazilian handed him the break.

Outside of the first few games of the opening set, Bellucci didn’t offer any form of resistance until the third set. “Like after long rallies, you weren’t really struggling for breath as much”. It’s always gone quite well for me.

“When you’re not playing your best, you find a way to come through matches like that and it can give you confidence”.

John Isner is best known for a match that lasted more than 11 hours over three days and went to the 138th game of the fifth set.

“I would have liked to have been able to enjoy it a bit more”, said Hewitt who was described as a “legend” by Tomic.

Bellucci pressed Murray throughout the first set with some stellar exhibitions of power thanks to a blistering forehand, and his resiliency in a 22-point game midway through the stanza proved he wasn’t intimidated by Murray’s presence on the opposite baseline. Sometimes you have to fight through.

Bellucci drops the first two points on his serve to fall behind love-30.

“But getting a lot of returns in play is something that throughout most of my career I’ve been good at”.

There were no breaks in the third set until Bellucci served at 5-5, when Murray played a superb game.

Four times, 2014 U.S. Open runner-up Caroline Wozniacki was one point from winning.

“I expect a tough match”, Murray said. “He’s played well this year”. The highlight of the set was the enduring sixth game, on Bellucci’s serve that saw eight deuce points being played and four break points saved.