Murray made to work to get past Melzer

13 April 2012

Andy Murray came from behind to claim a place in the third round of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells with a hard-fought win over Jurgen Melzer.

The British number one, who is seeded 11 and received a first round bye, lost the first four games of a fractious match but recovered to progress 3-6 6-3 6-3.

Both players reacted angrily to various decisions by the officials but Murray was the more composed by the end as world number 85 Melzer slipped from his early high standards.

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Tough test: Murray will now face Ivo Karlovic

Melzer, conqueror of Marat Safin in the previous round, raced out of the blocks to open up a 4-0 lead before Murray finally got himself into the match by breaking back.

The 20-year-old Scot then held and had a break point on Melzer's next service but in a fraught game that went to four deuces, the Austrian eventually prevailed.

Murray swore loudly in frustration at one shot and also complained to the umpire when he felt a let was not picked up by net sensors.

Melzer held to finish off the first set with ease but Murray regrouped to start the next positively.

He took the first three games to take a clear advantage but almost immediately squandered it as Melzer, who also saw fit to complain over some decisions, rallied to pull back to 3-2.

Murray responded to break again and then closed out the set off his own service.

With Melzer having lost the zip of the first set, Murray began to play with more confidence and broke in the third game of the final set to establish a winning position.

Both players continued to show frustration at various aspects of their games but Murray was not broken again and booked his place in the next round with another service break.

He will now play Croatia's Ivo Karlovic, who saw off South African qualifier Rik de Voest.

Murray admitted Melzer's strong start had caught him by surprise.

He told Sky Sports: "I think the first service game that I got broken in I had one double fault and he was taking the returns off my second serve so early.

"He hit a lot of clean winners and I was just a little slow to get off the mark.

"But after 4-0 I got back to 4-1 and I had break points to go to 4-3 and he had two net cords in the one point.

"After that I thought I played a good match. I felt really comfortable off the ground and I moved forward a lot more than I have done, the volleys were very solid.

"I wasn't expecting him to come out and start smoking the returns like that.

"He was just hitting clean winners and coming behind my second serves a lot.

"But once I started to get into the match a bit more and make a few first serves and get a bit more kick on my second serve, he started to miss.

"He wasn't able to come forward as much because I changed my tactics a bit and played more aggressive.

"I won the majority of my points after that and that's what I was most pleased about. Even though his tactics were good early on I managed to turn it around and was doing to him what he was doing to me."

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