It was another below average performance for Andy Murray at the 2010 Cincinnati Masters. He needed to fight back from a set down to clinch a 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-4) victory over Ernests Gulbis in the third round.

A tired looking Murray seemed to struggle with the hot conditions and Gulbis broke twice in the opening 5 games  to power into a 4-1 lead, Murray would retrieve one of the breaks but the Latvian held on to claim the first set.

Murray improved slightly in the second set, but he was aided in part by a drop in performance from Gulbis. The Scot claimed the second set and went a break up immediately at the start of third and all look  to be back to normal for Murray. Gulbis had other ideas and broke back in the next game and the rest of the set would go on serve with Gulbis looking the more threatening.

Experience seemed to play a big part in the result as Murray stayed composed in the breaker to race into a 6-1 lead before eventually taking the match on his 4th match point.

The 23-year-old British struggled in the heat and after the match said,

It was very warm and I was struggling to get control, Gulbis was hitting huge. He was comfortable when he was dictating points. I then began to make some first serves and then made sure he would have to play some great tennis to win the tie-break.

Murray will now face American wildcard Mardy Fish in the quarter finals – Fish has already beaten Murray twice this year, albeit when Murray was playing poorly. Fish took out Richard Gasquet 7-5 6-2 in his third round match.

In the only other completed 3rd round match, Novak Djokovic beat David Nalbandian in straight sets.

For anyone who watches tennis on regular basis will know Andy Murray is the world number 3 by no fluke, he is third to only the best two players of the last 10 years and today he showed the rest of Britain why for the first time in over 70 years a British man can win Wimbledon.

Ernests Gulbis entered today’s match as a genuine threat to Murray’s chnaces on winning Wimbledon, after 15 minutes it was obvious that Gulbis was way out of Murray’s league.

The world number three “schooled”  Gulbis 6-2 7-5 6-3 in one hour and 28 minutes.

Murray faced break points in his first service game but was never troubled again on serve and made just five unforced errors in the whole match and landed 73% of his first serves as he booked a third-round meeting with Serbia’s Viktor Troicki.

After his thumping win he spoke to the media,

I played a lot better than the first match, After the first couple of games, I relaxed. I served great and didn’t give him many opportunities at all. The atmosphere was very good, I think on the big points, the crowd got right behind me and when I had break points, they got noisier. When I needed the support, it was always there.

Gulbis who remains in most tennis fans eyes as an unfulfilled talent also spoke to reporters

Andy played an unbelievable match. He served unbelievably with something like 70% of first serves in, He played really smart tennis, he sliced to my backhand a lot and I didn’t know how to change the rhythm of the game. On my serve it was always a tight game but on his serve I didn’t have a chance. Overall he made five unforced errors – if someone does that you have to hit so many winners to beat him. He didn’t miss a ball and took his chances. If he plays like that he’s one of the favourites for sure.

Andy Murray slipped, fell and slided his way through to the quarter finals of the Artois Championships at Queens Club. Despite a brief rain delay, falling over several times, picking up three sepearte injuries and needing the trainer on court on two separate occasions Murray was able to recover from a set down to win 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 against Latvian teenager Ernests Gulbis.

After just 4 games both players has spent more time on the floor than standing with at least one player slipping on nearly every point and in some points both were on the floor. The slips were largely down a slippery surface, but both players were trying to use to their advantage by playing several drop shots, which was adding to the number of tumbles.

At 2-1 to Murray the umbrella’s went up as a very light drizzle began to fall, the did play another game, before Murray crashed into the net after slip, at which point a temporary delay was called. It lasted less than half an hour and the players were back out quickly.

In the opening set Murray looked passive and the game was passing him by, it wasn’t surprise when in the 11th game at 5-5 after another slip in which Murray looked to have hurt his thumb, a freak point won by Gulbis were Murray was hut by a ball that was at least going 6 foot long and some sloppy serving, Gulbis managed his first break points. He missed out on the first one, but a double fault gifted him the game on his second break point. Murray then received his first of injury timeouts, for the his thumb. He returned the court and being unable to break back he lost the set 7-5.

Murray upped his game in the second and we seen a completely different Murray railroad Gulbis to win the set 6-1 with two breaks of serve.

At the start of the third set Murray crashed to floor again and let out an almighty scream, there were worried looks all round with Murray still lying on the floor, he made it back his seat and his second medical timeout called. Murray returned to the match after receiving treatment form both trainer and doctor to both his thigh and shoulder.

The third set was played at a much higher level, with both players producing some good tennis. It was in the 9nth game though when Murray really sparked into life. He managed to win 2 break points to lead 15-40 on the Latvian serve. Gulbis saved the first with a service winner and the second looked to have been saved with Gulbis at the net he hit a volley that looked beyond Murray, though somehow Murray manged to stretch enough to not just reach the shot, but return it for a winner and break for the third time in the match. Murray went on to hold serve and finish off the match.

After the match the young Scot had this to say,

That’s the first time I’ve been on a tennis court and been more worried about getting through the match uninjured, It was so slippy out there and even when it’s only a little bit of rain I’m sliding two metres after every shot, and changing direction is so hard as well, so I was just really glad to come through in the end.

Andy Murray will now face Andy Roddick in the quarter finals tommorrow.

This afternoon Andy Murray will continue his Queens Club bid against rising teenage star Ernests Gulbis in the third round.

Not many will have heard of Ernests Gulbis, the 19 year old from Latvia has just started to make his impact on the tour reaching the French Open quarter finals just last week, losing in 3 closely fought sets to world number 3 Novak Djokovic. He is now ranked 51 in the world rankings, which is the highest he has ever been in his short career so far. 

Andy Murray and Ernests Gulbis have never met, though Gulbis did defeat Tim Henman at the Brits last French Open in 2007.

Before we build up Gulbis too much, he had not won a match on grass until this week and despite two quite convincing wins, one against 12 seeded Italian Seppi, Murray will go into the match odds on favourite. Gulbis has speaking to the press and said.

I’ll be pumped, I hope it’s going to be a close match. He can play really good tennis, especially on grass. I don’t know if he grew up on grass, but for sure he played a lot more than me. I think that also my game is pretty suitable for grass. My biggest weapon is serve. When you serve well on grass, it’s tough to break.

The rest of second round were matches were completed yesterday with all the remaining seeds, with exception of Seppi winning. With the exception of Andy Roddick, all the big names had very easy wins, Djokovic and Nadal wrapping up both their wins in a timely manner. Andy Roddick needed three sets to beat fellow American Genepri, though he did run off sets 2 and 3 6-1 after losing the first on a tie break.

The third round draw now looks like this,

We would expect Nadal, Djokovic and Roddick to win their matches easily, look for Gasquet and Ancic to put on a good match, Gasquet and former finalist here an Ancic easily a top 10 grass court player, who’s ranking is only low because of a long term illness.

Djokovic is still the favorite for the title at Queens with the bookmakers, with Nadal in second place and despite Andy Murray being ahead of Andy Roddick in the betting for Wimbledon, the four time Queens champion knows how to win here and they have Roddick as third favorite, Murray fourth and tournament dark horse unseeded Marion Ancic the fifth favorite.