Andy Murray finally ended a 15-month long title drough by saving five match points and defeating Tommy Robredo of Spain 5-7, 7-6, 6-1 at the Shenzhen Open on Sunday. It was an important win for Murray who is aiming to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals. He’s currently in 10th place in the ATP Race to London standings and will have a chance to improve on his place with several high profile tournaments coming up in Asia and Europe. Murray is aiming to qualify for the elite eight-man tournament for the seventh time.
“It’s been a long time since I won a tournament,” said Murray. “The way that the match was won doesn’t happen very often. It’s rare to win a match like that. I was very close to losing. It was an emotional week for me. I managed to fight my way through it, win the title, and hopefully I can win another one before the end of the year.”
“Today was obviously an incredibly tough match, the conditions are so hard to play in,” he admitted. “I got lucky, basically, at the end of the second set. I fought hard, tried my best and thankfully managed to turn it round. Tommy had a great tournament; he probably deserved to win the match today. He had the opportunities in the second set, but sometimes that happens in sport. I just tried to fight till the end.
“[On the match points] I tried to get as many balls back in play as I could. I missed three or four balls in the tie-break by very little. I was frustrated to be in that position, but thankfully managed to turn it around. In those situations you need some luck.”
This was Murray’s first title since winning the Wimbledon title in July 2013.
Robredo said despite the loss, he’s happy to have gone far in this inaugural event.
“When you finish second in a tournament it’s always great,” said Robredo. “In a match like today that was so close, it’s tough to accept it. But Andy did a great job. He was pushing right till the end and in the end, he deserved it. It was a good experience to learn from. I will keep working and hopefully next time I can win. It was a good week and hopefully next week I can be ready to play as well.”
