By Erik Gudris | Sunday, October 26, 2014
Andy Murray saved five match points against Tommy Robredo to claim the Valencia Open title in a hard fought, compelling final.
Photo Credit: AP
For Spain's Tommy Robredo, the one player he doesn't want to see across a net from him anytime soon must be Andy Murray.
That's because Murray once again in as many weeks, saved five match points against the Spaniard en route to winning a title. This time at the Valencia Open final in Valencia, Spain.
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A few weeks ago, Murray denied Robredo five match points in the Shenzhen Open final. Murray, in his quest to qualify for the ATP Tour finals in London, was now up to his 20th match in over five weeks. With Murray looking weary right from the start of the first set, Robredo must have liked his chances especially in front of a partisan Spanish crowd.
Both men stayed even with each other with Robredo fighting off early break points against him. At 3-all, Robredo won an extended rally that left Murray leaning against a wall in exhaustion. Murray would dump a forehand into the net allowing Robredo a break for 4-3.
Murray, continuing to look more tired than his opponent, would hit a shot well wide down set point giving Robredo the set 6-3.
The UK No. 1 bounced back by breaking Robredo to start the second set. That advantage proved short-lived as Robredo would gain the break back and soon found himself a game away from the title at 5-4. Murray countered by pressing on and eventual a tiebreak was needed.
Robredo gain the upper hand by using his forehand with great placement early on in the breaker. Robredo missed out on his first match point when a shot of his clipped the net and sailed long. Murray erased a second match point against him with an ace putting the breaker at 6-all.
Two more errors from Robredo would give Murray the set 7-6(7) and new life after looking almost out of the match only minutes before.
The final set proved too close to call even as both men fought fatigue and, in the case of Robredo, cramping. As both men mixed defiant defense with aggressive ball striking, the set entered a final tiebreak.
Though Murray struck several big forehand winners, it was Robredo with a timely smash winner of his own who created his third match point. Once again, Murray saved himself from defeat this time with a volley winner. Another match point would come and go for Robredo. Murray would net a backhand several points later to give Robredo a fifth match point.
Yet, Murray with a surprise serve and volley move that saw him end the point with a leaping smash erased Robredo's chance. Once again, Murray had erased five match points against him as he had done earlier in Shenzhen.
At 7-all, Robredo would net a forehand and that set up a match point for Murray. Both men entered one final extended rally that Murray would finally win by striking a down the line backhand winner into the open space.
With that, Murray collapsed in victory having pulled off the incredible comeback win 3-6, 7-6(7), 7-6(8) to claim his third title of the season.
At the net, Robredo greeted Murray, somewhat in jest, with a double finger salute (See Full Video Here).
Then, both men despite their exhaustion embraced each other after the three hour and 20 minute final, making it the longest ATP final of the year.
"I promise next time I have match points I'm going to beat you," Robredo said with a smile to Murray during the trophy ceremony.
"Unbelievable match. Great fighter," Murray told the 32-year-old Robredo. "I have a lot of respect for you."
Murray, thanks to his Valencia title run, now finds himself in fifth place overall in the race to London for the elite eight-man event. After raising his trophy, Murray then did the ceremonial spraying of champagne on the court before taking a big gulp out of the bottle himself. After a hard-fought victory despite looking out of it for most of the match, Murray deserves to take a second sip of the bubbly in celebration.