Update 5:00 pm. Marcos Baghdatis might want to reconsider who he teams up with after Andy Murray admitted the pair’s doubles match helped him make light work of the Cypriot in their Brisbane singles quarterfinal today.
There would be no repeat of the sluggish starts that plagued the Scot in his first two matches as he wiped his fellow former Australian Open finalist 6-2 6-2 in an hour and five minutes.
“The doubles that we played yesterday was good. I thought that probably sharpened me up a little bit,” Murray said.
“We played a really high standard doubles match, with quick reflexes. I felt like I had a little more time on the ball today than the first couple of matches as well.”
The top seed hit the ground running breaking serve in the opening game before charging to a 3-0 lead.
It would not be until the fourth game that the Cypriot would crack his first winner and even then Murray was berating himself, making it clear his standards are set high for his Australian Open warm-up.
The crowd finally cheered Baghdatis on to the scoreboard at 1-4 but with a double break in hand, Murray would comfortably close out the first set 6-2 in 30 minutes.
“I felt solid on the ball and because I was moving better he didn’t hit too many winners today,” Murray said.
With the Baghdatis forehand failing to find the mark consistently enough to trouble him, the second set was more of the same, with Murray consistently finding the lines and running down anything his opponent threw at him.
“It’s [movement] a huge part of my game and when that goes well then normally the rest of my game improves a lot,” Murray said.
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“I can dictate more of the point; I can make it harder for my opponents to get the ball through me. That’s what I did from the start.”
Up a break at 4-2, the Scot hit a shot between his legs and ran down Baghdatis’s subsequent drop volley to bring up three break points.
He landed the double break and brought up two match points with a swinging ace down the T.
Baghdatis saved one with a lucky slice dropping over the tape but a dumped backhand return into the net would hand Murray a convincing straight sets win and a semifinal showdown against Bernard Tomic and a parochial Australian crowd.
“He’s very unorthodox, very different to a lot of the guys on the tour nowadays,” Murray said of Tomic.
“He’s quite unpredictable … He can play a couple of games where he doesn’t do much then he can play three or four great games so you have to be on the ball against him mentally.”
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