After a slight stumble in the second set Andy Murray beat former world number two Tommy Haas in 4 sets to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon 08.

The British number one won 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-2 to reach the last 16 for the second time at Wimbledon, the match was wrapped out in two hours 35 minutes, though likely should have been finished of quicker and in straight sets. Murray lost to Marcos Baghdatis two years ago in the fourth round, but this time he has set his sights on much more.

Things did not immediately start well for Murray when he lost the opening six points, fortunately it was Haas serving first and Murray was able to recover from 0-30 down to hold his serve and then was able to break Haas in the next game. Murray then had another break point chance in game seven but it went begging. Murray held serve though with same fine serving he had showed in his previous Wimbledon matches this year.

Andy Murray carried his form in to the start of second and again broke serve in game three with some superb passing shots, then completely against the run of play Haas broke back, Murray seemed to lose concentration for the first time in the match, which proved costly. With the set in his hands he allowed Haas back in and the German stepped up his game and took the second set to a tie beak. The momentum seemed to be switching from Murray to Haas and eventually Murray was making more errors, a double fault in the tie break proved fatal as he lost the set,

Haas kept up the pressure and for a few games at the start of the third it looked as if the German was about to take control, Haas had two break points, but Haas messed one chance up and Murray served an ace for the other. That was Haas chances over, in the next Murray broke Haas as it was now the German’s turn to serve a double fault. Murray held serve for the rest of the set to take a 2-1 lead.

Murray completed the recovery when the young Scot took full control of the fourth set with two breaks, After the match Murray said

I thought it was a good match, I maybe had the chance to win in straight sets but, apart from the last few games of second set, I thought it was a really good match. I’ve managed to deal with the tight situations. I probably didn’t play the best tie-break today, and in the past that might have affected me, but today it didn’t. The first three matches were very good. I’ve only dropped the one set, but I’ll have to play better if I want to go further.

and Tommy Haas said,

At 1-1 in the third I had two break chances and he came up with the goods. Then in the fourth he came up with some unbelievable shots. He has a very good first serve which some people underrate. I think he needs to work on his second serve but overall he has a game that’s tough to beat.

Andy Murray will next face eighth seed Richard Gasquet after last year’s semi-finalist beat Gilles Simon 6-3 6-3 6-7 6-3.

Andy Murray will again step on centre court later this afternoon. He will take on Tommy Haas in their third round encounter.

Tommy Haas is somewhat of an under achiever, having once been has high as 2 in the world rankings, he has failed to ever make quite live up to his talent, Semi final appearances at the Australian open and quarter finals at US open is his best results in grand slams. At Wimbledon until last year he had not made it by the third round.

The two have met twice before, both times the matches were played on hard courts at indian wellls. In 2007 Murray won in 3 sets and earlier this year Haas won in 3 sets.

The pair will be second on centre court after yelna Jankovic continues are bid for the womens title.

Andy Murray threw away a 1 set lead as he crashed out of the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells. He went down 2-6 7-5 6-3 to Germany’s number 2 Tommy Haas.

The British number 1 had started brightly, breaking in the third and fifth games to take the opening set relatively comfortably.

But it was Murray’s old problems on his serve that haunted him. At the start of the second set his serve simply deserted him and Haas stormed to a 4-1 lead. With Murray though whenever his serve is misfiring, he always has a chance with his great ability on return and indeed Murray did recovered the break, the joy was short lived as Hass broke again to level.

Murray then missed on five break points on the Hass serve in the decider. He would rue those misses as Haas broke him penultimate game to love, before the 29 year old from Hamburg in Germany served out to take the final set 6-3.

The 20-year-old berated himself afterwards, saying:

If I had played a bit more aggressively in the third set – like I did in the first set – then I would have won the match….I still think I was good enough to win the match but I didn’t.

Murray’s on court attitude was slightly better today compared with yesterday, though it was after a large scream and vent of frustration at losing a break point to go 4-3 up that he then went on to lose the next service game to love. After the match Murray said,

It was better than yesterday, that’s for sure…I got annoyed a couple of times but that was more because I was playing a bit defensive and wasn’t quite finding a way to get on the offensive in the third set….But the mindset was way better today than it was yesterday. I was much calmer at the start of the match.

Tommy Hass will now face Roger Federer in the quarter finals.

Update : Tommy Hass has recently been recovering from a shoulder injury and will now actually miss his quarter final match due to injury

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