Andy Murray backed up an impressive win over world No13 Matteo Berrettini to edge out an all-British contest with Cameron Norrie for a place in the quarter-finals of the China Open in Beijing.
As in his first-round match, Murray endured two tiebreaks in a 7-6, 6-7, 6-1 victory over the British No3 to mark his first back-to-back wins on the main tour in a year.
Following the two-and-a-half-hour contest, which puts him back into the world’s top 300, Murray, who admitted to struggling in the heat as he continues his comeback from surgery, said: “I was getting tired so I had to change the way the match was going and managed to shorten enough points at the end.
“Me and Cam practised three or four times together before we came to Asia back home. He was getting the better of me in the practices, and it’s always tricky playing someone you know quite well from the same country.”
Murray is now likely to take on the No1 seed in Beijing, Dominic Thiem, the first time he has taken on a player in the world’s top 10 since the semi-finals of the French Open two years ago against Stan Wawrinka.
