Andy Murray beats Vasek Pospisil at the Moselle Open to seal first ATP Tour quarter-final for two years

Andy Murray is through to the last eight at the Moselle Open in France
AFP via Getty Images
George Flood22 September 2021

Andy Murray has cruised into the quarter-finals at the Moselle Open as his encouraging form continued in Metz.

The three-time Grand Slam winner built on his impressive three-set triumph over sixth seed Ugo Humbert with a 6-3 6-3 defeat of Canadian world no66 Vasek Pospisil on Wednesday evening.

Either top seed Hubert Hurkacz or Lucas Pouille now await Murray - a finalist at this tournament in 2007 - in his first ATP Tour quarter-final since October 2019.

Murray - who suffered a low-key defeat in a Challenger in Rennes last week - broke Pospisil in the seventh game of the opening set, which he closed out as the Canadian failed to hold again.

Pospisil rallied at the start of the second set to immediately break the former world number one and then held to move 2-0 ahead.

Murray, though, remained composed to stay in the set and eventually broke back to level at 3-3.

A hold from Murray kept the pressure on before a couple of unforced errors from Pospisil saw the Briton serve for the match.

Murray obliged with an impressive hold, taking a first match point as Pospisil sent another return into the net.

"I was trying to make him work on his service games, and he has an excellent serve, then likes to dictate with the first ball after," Murray said in his courtside interview, broadcast on Amazon Prime.

"I was trying to focus on getting lots of returns back and then when I got the opportunity I was trying to put some pressure on him, I think I did that well.

"For the most part, I served pretty good, lost my rhythm a bit at the end of the first set, start of the second, but I returned well and played a smart match.

"Even after I was a break down, I was still creating chances and once I got back into the second set I gained a bit of confidence and was a little bit more offensive, that was what turned the match for me.

"For me, this period of the last few years has been the most I have played really," added Murray, who had pushed world number three Stefanos Tsitsipas to five sets in the first round of the US Open last month.

"My body feels good and I am starting to gain just a little bit of confidence with each match, starting to see the points and how I want to play them, which is great.

"There have been times in the past year where I have been a little bit confused and not seeing how the points are developing which was always a strong part of my game.

"It made me feel quite uncomfortable on court when I was feeling that way, so I am starting to get that back and the results are coming, my tennis is getting better."

Murray, 34, added: "I would love to get another opportunity to play here in the final, but there is a lot of tennis to be played before then potentially against the number one seed in the next round.

"It is not going to be easy if I want to reach the final, but I am playing well and have an opportunity."

Additional reporting by the Press Association.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in