After being taken to five sets in his first two matches, finding it a little tough to get through his previous opponents, here at the French Open. what Andy Murray needed more than anything .
The third-round encounter with Ivo Karlovic was a quickfire victory for the British Number 1 tennis player., but ranked number 2 in the world.
The world No 2 delivered in emphatic fashion, crushing the giant Croatian 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 in an hour and 56 minutes to earn a meeting on Sunday with the winner of today’s later meeting between John Isner and Teymuraz Gabashvili.
Ivo Karlovic, at 6ft 11in tall and weighing more than 16 stone, had won his first two opponents - 72 aces, but in Andy Murray, he was facing one of the game’s great returners.
Having dropped serve only twice in those first two matches, Ivo Karlovic was broken three times in his first four service games here as Murray took charge.
“I got off to a quick start and against someone like Ivo that’s important,” Murray said afterwards. “But he fought right to the end.
At 37 Ivo Karlovic was the oldest man to play in the third round of a Grand Slam singles competition for 25 years. He passed Goran Ivanisevic’s all-time aces record last year and still has an awesome serve.
Murray, however, has nearly always played well against the biggest servers.
His lightning reactions and speed of thought and movement help him to get to more balls than most and can sometimes force opponents to go for that little bit extra on serve.
The quality of his returns was exceptional. Karlovic, knowing that he would have little chance if the rallies developed into lengthy baseline exchanges, put his faith in serve-and-volley, but Murray kept putting him in trouble by hitting returns into his feet, especially in the early stages.
Getting down to play balls that low is not easy when you are 6ft 11in tall. Even if Karlovic did get the balls back in court he was often able to do little with them.
Karlovic hit only 14 aces - not many by his standards - to Murray’s eight, but an equally telling statistic was the 75 per cent of first serves which the Scot put in court, which is more than usual.
By finding the target with so many first serves he did not allow Karlovic many chances to attack. Murray did not have to defend a single break point all match.
“The return has normally been the strongest part of my game but against Ivo it’s not always down to you,” Murray said after the match. “When he serves well there’s not much you can do. I just had to stay patient and take care of my own service games.”
On the rare occasions when there were rallies of more than three or four shots, Murray moved his opponent around the court, taking advantage of his lack of mobility. When Karlovic got into the net he would often find passing shots flying past him down either flank. Murray hit the ball consistently well, making just four unforced errors in the match.
Karlovic’s height did not stop Murray using the lob from time to time, though not as frequently as he did so memorably when beating the Croatian at Wimbledon last summer.
After Murray had played his first two matches on Court Philippe Chatrier, which is the main stadium here, his third was played on Court Suzanne Lenglen, which looked a picture on the best day of the tournament so far. There was only a light breeze and the temperature was a very pleasant 24C.
Andy Murray was into his stride immediately. He was 5-0 up within 20 minutes and Karlovic needed to produce his best serving so far to get on the scoreboard, two aces at the start of the sixth game enabling the world No 28 to hold serve for the first time at the third attempt.
Karlovic was even out-aced in the first set, hitting only two to AndyMurray’s three. Murray dropped just six points on his serve and made only one unforced error in taking the set in just 26 minutes.
The second set was closer, Karlovic was a little heated, but the outcome was rarely in doubt after Murray broke serve in the opening game. Even the hint of a Karlovic comeback was quickly squashed after Andy Murray had gone 0-30 down when serving at 4-3. Geeing himself up with a “C’mon!” or two, the Scot promptly won the next four points to take the game and proceeded to serve out for the set.
Karlovic improved a little with each set and took the third to a tie-break. However, the signs were not good for the Croatian when he lost the first point against serve as Murray struck a superb backhand cross-court pass winner after chasing back to retrieve a lob volley.
A splendid forehand cross-court pass winner gave the Scot four match points. Karlovic, in characteristic fashion, saved the first with an ace but on the second he hit his return beyond the baseline.
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