Andy Murray again saved five match points against Tommy Robredo in a final when he fought back to win the Valencia Open 3-6, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (8) on Sunday and secure valuable points for his ATP World Tour finals bid.
The grueling battle at the cathedral-like L’Agora arena in Valencia, Spain, was a repeat of last month’s Shenzhen Open showpiece, when Murray fought off five match points against the Spaniard to claim a 5-7, 7-6 (9), 6-1 success.
A wildcard at the indoor hard-court event that he won in 2009, third seed Murray produced an erratic display against the unseeded Robredo on Sunday, but had just enough in the tank to claim a 31st career singles title in 3 hours, 20 minutes — the longest final on the ATP World Tour this year.
Photo: AFP
After thumping a backhand winner to seal the win, the Scot, who squandered a match point earlier in the third set, collapsed to the floor and barely had enough strength to get to the net to greet his equally exhausted opponent.
Murray was playing his 20th match in five weeks — having won in Vienna this month — and Sunday’s victory gave him a further 200 points that lifted him to fifth in the race to secure a spot at the eight-man finals in London.
Along with Japan’s Kei Nishikori, David Ferrer of Spain, Czech Tomas Berdych, Canada’s Milos Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, Murray will be looking to secure one of the four spots left at this week’s BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.
Photo: AFP
“I played well at the right moments,” the 27-year-old told reporters. “I know it was an incredible match. The tennis at the end and in the second set was high level.”
After an intense first set with Robredo in the ascendancy, Murray upped his game in the second before failing to convert three break points on the Robredo serve that would have given him a 5-2 lead.
The Scot then played a woeful game to hand a break back and home favorite Robredo had two match points in the tiebreak that would have given him a 13th career title. However, Murray dug deep to force a third set and came through the deciding tiebreak by fending off three more match points.
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