Murray wins 6-2 6-0 in just 65 minutes after beating Philipp Kohlschreiber in the early hours of Thursday morning
Andy Murray showed no damaging effects from his late finish in the previous round as he raced into the quarter-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open with a quick victory over Marcel Granollers on Thursday night.
However, the bizarre events surrounding the Scot’s opening match – which did not start until 1.12am on Thursday – has drawn the head of the Association of Tennis Professionals into an apologetic statement in which he promised to review the tour’s scheduling arrangements.
Had the delay been caused by bad weather, there would have been more sympathy for the tournament. But all it took to seriously delay Murray’s planned start time was two gruelling three-set battles on the Estadio Manolo Santana earlier in the day. And such lengthy contests are hardly a rarity on clay.
Despite requests from Murray’s coach, Amelie Mauresmo, that the match should be shifted to a different court, it went ahead on Madrid’s main stadium in front of a smattering of fans. Philipp Kohlschreiber extended Murray to three sets – as he had in the Munich final on Sunday – before being subdued at exactly 3am after a one-sided deciding set.
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“The scheduling issues yesterday in Madrid were unfortunate,” said Chris Kermode, the ATP chief executive, in a statement, “with players going on-court past 1am at a disadvantage for the following day’s matches. While such instances are rare, we will look at reducing the risk of similar instances occurring in the future.”
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By the time Murray finished his refuelling and post-match physio, the sun must have been rising over the Caja Magica – the rather soulless steel box erected by billionaire impresario Ion Tiriac to host this event – yet he had recovered well enough to dispatch Granollers in comfortable style.
Murray’s 6-2, 6-0 win was ruthless in its execution. A touch of leg-weariness may have helped him, oddly, because he was looking to be extremely aggressive and so conserve his energy.
This is believed to be the first time in seven years that he has scored 6-0 sets in consecutive matches.
“I definitely felt pretty tired today,” Murray told Sky Sports after the match. Asked about the previous night’s delays, he replied: “I don’t want to get into it, we get into trouble if we say anything. But at these big events, if they want the players to perform at their best, they shouldn’t have us playing at three o’clock in the morning.”
Murray thus clocked up his 16th straight victory over players not named Novak Djokovic. Now into the quarter-finals, he is the highest seed left in the tournament, thanks to the absence of Djokovic – who opted for rest this week – and Roger Federer’s surprise defeat by rising star Nick Kyrgios on Wednesday.
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Back at home, the Lawn Tennis Association is poised to start the recruitment process for a new director of performance, after chief executive Michael Downey acknowledged that his experiment with Bob Brett had not been a success. Brett is an experienced on-court coach but not an administrator and the national network of high-performance centres has been rudderless for the past six months.
The decision was rubber-stamped at an LTA board meeting on Wednesday, and could lead to some complicated internal politics if – as expected – Brett continues to work as the “director of player development” while reporting directly to Downey.
