‘Previous boy’ Andy Murray insists he’s feeling contemporary and prepared for extra matches after making it seven wins on the trot with a second spherical victory on the LTA’s Rothesay Open Nottingham on Thursday evening.
Murray, using a six match win streak after his triumph on the Lexus Surbiton Trophy and a gap spherical victory in Nottingham, confronted little hassle as he dispatched world No.127 Hugo Grenier 6-3 7-5 to arrange a quarter-final assembly towards eighth seed Dominic Stricker on Friday.
The 2-time Wimbledon champion has dropped only one set on grass courts up to now this summer time and might be a scorching favorite towards Swiss star Stricker, a 20-year-old former junior prodigy who beat Britain’s Ryan Peniston 6-4 6-2 within the second spherical.
And though Murray prepares for an eighth match inside two weeks, the 36-year-old is able to push on throughout the weekend regardless of the health points which have dogged him lately.
“I really feel like I moved properly there. The matches haven’t been too lengthy, the ultimate in Surbiton was fairly a fast one after which the primary spherical right here as properly, so I’m recovering properly,” he stated.
“It’s been a number of matches for me, and I’m an previous boy now so it takes me just a little bit longer to get well however I’m feeling good.
“I like competing clearly. At instances I get annoyed however for me that’s at all times been a part of competing. I need to do my finest and after I’m not doing that I clearly get annoyed with myself, but it surely was a very nice ambiance right now and hopefully that may hold progressing as we go alongside.”
At this time’s match towards Grenier proved a distinct proposition for Murray than his first spherical win versus Joris De Loore, with the Frenchman having extra grass guile.
But it surely was nothing that fazed the two-time Wimbledon champion, who was barely threatened on serve and was capable of shut out the match with little fuss.
He added: “It was a really completely different match to the primary day. He performed with numerous selection and he favored to return to the web, he served properly.
“From the again of the courtroom he didn’t have a number of energy however he used a number of slice and angles, slowballed me just a little bit. It was very completely different to the primary match but it surely felt like I handled it fairly properly.
“I used to be dictating numerous the rallies and within the second set I simply needed to hold in on his service video games as he was serving extraordinarily properly, and I managed to get the break on the finish.”
Andy Murray recorded a seventh consecutive win with straight set victory over Hugo Grenier
(Getty Pictures for LTA)
Elsewhere, it was a historic day for British ladies’s tennis in Nottingham, with there now being 4 British ladies within the quarter-final of a WTA occasion for the primary time in historical past.
After Heather Watson had crushed Wimbledon semi-finalist Tatjana Maria on Wednesday, Katie Boulter, Harriet Dart and Jodie Burrage all gained their second spherical matches on Thursday to achieve the final eight.
Boulter began Wednesday’s motion with a 7-5 6-3 win over Ukrainian fortunate loser Daria Snigur whereas Dart adopted that with a win over one other Ukrainian within the type of fifth seed Anhelina Kalinina, beating the Italian Open finalist 6-0 7-5.
Boulter and Dart will now face off within the final eight on Friday, guaranteeing that no less than one Brit might be in semi-final motion on Saturday.
And Burrage might be hoping to hitch one in every of them and doubtlessly Watson after she beat Polish third seed and this yr’s Australian Open semi-finalist Magda Linette 7-5 6-3 to achieve her first ever WTA Tour quarter-final, with one other Pole within the type of Magdalena Frech ready on Friday.
For the most recent motion on the British summer time grass courtroom season, try the LTA web site