Andy Murray gave a new meaning to winning ugly after he survived an inspired assault from world No77 Jiri Vesely to beat the young Czech 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and 47 minutes to reach the last 16 in Indian Wells.
Murray squandered an early double break to lose the first set, and he had to fight back from a break down in both the second and third sets before finally sealing the win.
“It was a pretty ugly match to be involved in,” admitted Murray. “Thankfully I managed to dig it out in the end. He’s a tricky player. I’ve never played against him before. He’s a lefty, understands how to play the points and uses the angles well. It was tough.”
Vesely was playing his first ever ATP Masters 1000 tournament and this week was the first time the 20-year-old had posted consecutive victories on tour. Before Indian Wells, he had never beaten anyone ranked higher than No55 in the world.
Murray, a finalist in 2009, had fallen in his opening match in two of the past three years at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Murray got off to a flying start, breaking twice and was serving for a 4-0 lead before Vesely – who was playing a top-10 player for the first time in his career – showed hints of what he’s capable of and got one of the breaks back with a forehand drive winner.
The Czech lefty, who was the world No1 junior in 2011 and is the youngest player in the top-100, found his swagger as he aced to hold to love in the following game.
Murray pulled out an ace to save a break point in game six before Vesely survived a 10-minute game to hold before he called the trainer to help him with a terrible bleeding blister on his foot, which made all those long rallies he managed to win against the Wimbledon champion all the more impressive.
Murray was still up a break and as the world No6 served for the first set at 5-4, Vesely upped the ante and broke serve.
The set went to a tiebreak, which saw Vesely race to a 3-1 lead, albeit with an illegal point, where he reached over the net to hit an easy volley. Murray argued with the umpire Mohamed Lahyani but to no avail.
The world No77 then hit a brilliant backhand passing shot for a 5-2 lead and a netted volley from Murray gave him four set points. Vesely only needed one as he took the opening set with a service winner.
He then broke in the opening game of the second set and continued to make use of Murray’s lacklustre display to hold for 3-1.
The Scot found a way back into the match though when Vesely hit a couple of errors to get broken in the sixth game. The pair then exchanged breaks and a terrible overhead miss from Vesely allowed Murray to level for 4-4.
The nerves of the inexperienced Vesely got the best of him, and Murray stole the second set, with little effort, when his young opponent sent a lob long.
They both exchanged breaks to open the final set but it was Vesely who edged ahead and maintained his lead until the eighth game, where he crumbled under pressure, and double-faulted to give Murray the break back for 4-4.
And Murray took the match on his second match point two games later.
