Andy Murray enjoys few experiences more than proving people wrong and so the most stubborn man in tennis goes into the second week of the French Open for the eighth time in 10 visits with a ringing endorsement from the rival he beat to get there, Juan Martín del Potro. There were plenty of people at the start of the week who feared the Scot’s form and fitness were at such a low ebb he had no chance of reaching the final for a second year in a row, and diminished prospects of getting past the quarter-finals. He is not quite there yet, but he is in the fourth round again, and deservedly so after beating the occasionally inspired Argentinian by the misleading score of 7-6 (10-8), 7-5, 6-0 in just under three hours on a mild and pleasant afternoon on Court Philippe Chatrier, not long before the rain arrived.
[img width=200,height=200px]http://www.officialoriolestore.com/img/mlb_jerseys_new/baltimore_orioles/orioles_216.jpg[/img]Del Potro, making his first appearance here in five years after the most wretched
http://www.officialathleticshop.com/authentic-42-dave-henderson-jersey.html time with injury, said of their 10th encounter, and only the second to finish in straight sets: “It was another good battle. The first two sets [took] two hours and a half, really long sets. “Andy, he’s very smart on court. He has all the shots, but also is great mentally. That’s why he’s No1 in the world and I know how important this tournament is for him. I wish him all the best and, hopefully, he can go far.” Andy Murray battles past Martin Klizan and more: French Open 2017 – as it happened The world No1 Andy Murray reached the third round at Roland Garros with a hard-fought 6-7, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 victory over Martin Klizan Read more A few players on the Tour would not bother with such compliments. But Del Potro is a man apart, encouraging genuine warmth in the crowd as he fought with tigerish intent to bring the best out of Murray. Del Potro should have won the first set but a blistering forehand in the tie-break was out by so tiny a margin that the chair umpire conferred with the line judge before awarding the point and set to Murray. The second frame was just as intense but Murray gradually got the upper hand over Del Potro, who had to take painkillers for a groin strain he picked up in his match against Nicolás Almagro two days before. He did not use that as an excuse and said he played pain free, but it was
Dennis Eckersley Jersey clear he was not moving as well as he might have wished. Partly that was down to what he identified as Murray’s court intelligence. There were so many artful exchanges between these two wonderful players that it was difficult to pick when the winning shot would arrive. Murray concentrated on keeping as many balls away from his opponent’s lethal forehand as he could, then, having peppered him on the other flank, used the open court to tease him with drop shots. Advertisement Del Potro was hardly surprised by the strategy and, when not slicing backhand returns to keep the point going, ran around those shots to unleash his forehand. He struck 16 clean winners with the shot, but only one in the final set, which came and went in 28 minutes. Fighting to the end, however, he made Murray save three break points before completing the bagel. Murray was in understandably good spirits – although little has unsettled his mood for some time, win or lose. The self-absorption of his youth is long gone, even if there is the odd on-court explosion still. He said after a couple of such outbursts in his second match, against Martin Klizan on Thursday, that he sometimes struggles to contain those emotions.
[img width=200px,height=200px]http://www.rangersteamonline.com/img/nhl_jerseys_new/new_york_rangers/rangers_768.jpg[/img]Perhaps it is no bad thing, though. If he were to go totally against his true nature he might create confusion that would further undermine the state of his game head. He had it on here, with just a fleeting curse or admonishment for his box, where Ivan Lendl sat in his customary state of expressionless concentration. By the standards of a year ago, when he launched the most extraordinary assault on Novak Djokovic’s No 1 world ranking around this time, he has under-performed. He arrived here having lost early in tournaments to excellent but lower-rated opponents in Dominic Thiem (Barcelona), Albert Ramos Vi?olas (Monte Carlo), Borna Coric (Madrid) and the dangerous and unpredictable Fabio FogniniBut Murray’s clay game is improving by
http://www.officialcardinalsbaseball.com/authentic-5-albert-pujols-jersey.html the match. He agreed that this might have been his best 2017 showing. “I played some good matches beginning of the year,” he said, “but definitely, in the clay court season, those second and third sets were the best I have played, for sure.” Advertisement He might have paid scant attention to the pessimists, but his mood is lifted. He is ready to raise his level another notch, as all the really good players do when it matters. He expects to get better, because he has done it so many times before. Last year here, he reached the final after coming close to losing in his first two matches, each of which went to five sets. This time, he took four sets to overcome Andrey Kuznetsov and Klizan before hitting an ominous beat against Del Potro. “To be playing him this early on in the slam is not easy, but it can be a very positive thing,” Murray said. “You play someone that good, maybe you’re a little bit more switched on. Your focus is maybe a little bit higher.” There was one moment of minor irritation when he was asked why he was “shushing himself”. He arched his eyebrows and replied, “I don’t know why I was doing it. Why does it matter? What’s the big deal? I don’t get it. If I say something and you guys ask me what I was saying, if I say nothing, you ask me why I don’t say anything. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to say? It’s irrelevant. What’s relevant is what happens during the points.” He’s not wrong. Kyle Edmund falls short but happy with progress The Recap: sign up for the best of the Guardian's sport coverage Read more The last time two British players made it to the fourth round of the French Open, the Beatles were No1 in the charts and Harold Macmillan was serving out his closing months in 10 Downing Street. Kyle Edmund, 22, might not have listened to From Me to You or know who Supermac was, but the 22-year-old with the booming forehand would dearly have loved to match that 1963 achievement alongside Andy Murray at this tournament. For long stretches of his third-round match against Kevin Anderson, Edmund looked like being part of a little bit of tennis history, but he found the resilience of the tall, powerful South African too much after nearly four hours of grinding tennis on the compact Court 2. Anderson, seven places behind Edmund in the world rankings at 56, outlasted him to win 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 and book a place in the last 16 against the former US Open champion Marin Cilic, who made short work of the Spaniard Feliciano López, to win 6-1, 6-3, 6-3. Edmund was simultaneously disappointed and satisfied, pointing out that another five-setter was a useful part of his tennis education, especially as he held
Bob Gibson Womens Jersey up well physically. Now, he says, he is looking forward to Wimbledon, with preparation at Queen’s and Eastbourne – challenging the suggestion that it was a surface on which he did not feel comfortable. Advertisement “I don’t quite remember me ever saying that I don’t like grass,” he said in his ultra-polite way. “I just enjoy playing on clay and hard a lot more. Well, I play on them a lot more. So I have more time on them.” There was little in this match for nearly three hours, as they traded big shots from behind or near the baseline. Each of them loaded up with full-force groundstrokes, averaging only three shots a rally until near the end of the match. As Edmund said after his quick-fire win over Renzo Olivo in the second round: “There’s not much point having weapons if you don’t use them.” Jim Courier said after that performance that Edmund has the potential to be a top-10 player. Apart from a dip during the fourth set on Saturday, he looked worthy of the assessment. Anderson came to life down the stretch to put the pressure back on Britain’s No2, although breaks were hard to come by for each of them. Edmund held from love-40 for 3-3 in the fifth but could not sustain his level all the way to the end
