By Chris Oddo | Wednesday October 26, 2016
Andy Murray rallied past Martin Klizan to set up a second-round clash with Gilles Simon in Vienna.
Photo Source: Jordan Mansfield/Getty
Andy Murray opened accounts at the Erste Open in Vienna with a victory, but it was by no means uncomplicated. The World No. 2 served for a straight-sets win but he was broken by a pugnacious Martin Klizan and eventually dropped the set in a tiebreaker. But the resilient Scotsman recovered to secure a 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-0 victory.
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Murray’s win sets up a second-round clash with France’s Gilles Simon on Thursday. The World No.2 will be fourth up, after Dominic Thiem and Viktor Troicki do battle.
Murray won 27 of 35 points in a lopsided third set to clinch his 11th victory in a row. The 2014 Vienna champion has now won 66 matches on the season. He’s trying to match Novak Djokovic by winning his seventh title of 2016 in Vienna.
Murray is also closing in on taking the No. 1 ranking from Djokovic before the ATP Finals in London, and by winning his second title in Vienna he’d increases his chances of doing just that. Here’s how Murray could achieve the feat:
Djokovic has held the No.1 ranking for 121 weeks consecutively and 222 overall.
Also moving through on Wednesday in Vienna were a pair of tall towers. John Isner and No.8-seeded Ivo Karlovic each prevailed in third-set tiebreakers, with Isner knocking off Feliciano Lopez and Karlovic defeating Damir Dzumhur.
Philipp Kohlschreiber also needed a third-set tiebreaker to advance. The German squeaked past Stephane Robert, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3), to book a second-round clash with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Albert Ramos-Vinolas defeated Fabio Fognini, 6-2, 6-2, and will face Jurgen Melzer in the second round.