October 26, (THEWILL) – Andy Murray advanced to the second round of the Vienna Open after defeating fifth seed Hubert Hurkacz in a marathon 6-4 6-7(6) 6-3 victory in Vienna.
this year in , setting up a second-round match with Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz.
Murray had a strong start to his match, forcing two break points in the third game before Hurkacz came back to take a 2-1 lead.
The match was still on serve until the ninth game, when Murray earned two break opportunities and converted the second to take a 5-4 lead. After that, the 34-year-old held serve to win the first set 6-4.
Hurkacz did not put meaningful pressure on Murray’s serve until the sixth game of the second set, but he could not convert four breakpoint opportunities as his opponent rallied from an 0-40 deficit.
Both players were unable to convert break points in the next two games, and the set ended 6-6, requiring a tiebreaker.
The tiebreaker was tense until Murray made two unforced errors in a row with the score at 6-6, allowing Hurkacz to force the match into a third set.
The Pole broke Murray in the first game of the fourth set, but Murray immediately broke back to tie the match at 1-1. The third set was subsequently decided on serve until Murray converted another breakpoint opportunity in the sixth game to grab a 4-2 lead.
Murray then held serve before Hurkacz followed suit, giving the 34-year-old the opportunity to serve for the match. Murray missed two match points as the fifth seed fought back to bring up two break points, but it was third time fortunate for the Brit as he won a hard-fought triumph.
The two hours and 40 minutes match was Murray’s first victory against a top 10 player since his return from his injury lay-off.
Murray, who is now ranked 156th in the world, will face Alcaraz in the second round of the Vienna Open after the 18-year-old beat Evans earlier. With that 6-4 6-3 victory, the world number 42 Alcaraz put an end to any thoughts of an all-British matchup in the next round.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
