In the past two days, the ATP 500 event in dubai has been nothing but an auspicious ride for the top seeds. Earlier today, Tomas Berdych, the 5th seed, and Roberto Bautista-Agut, the 6th seed, suffered an early exit, thus leaving the main draw without its regular competitors for the higher stages. While some players failed, others made no wrong steps. Andy Murray is one of them, as the world no. 1 secured a spot in the quarterfinals. Playing his first ATP event since the Australian Open, Murray is doing a great job in Dubai, at least for now.
The opponent had no chance
Andy Murray's approach was a bit different as today, there were no glitches, no mistakes, just straight forward thinking. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (97 ATP) stood close to Murray in the first minutes or so. Once he was broken, Murray totally dominated. The Scot claimed the set 6-2. The 2nd set has no special story to tell as Murray won it 6-0. Now, in head-to-head statistics, Murray leads Garcia-Lopez 3-1. In the quarterfinals of the Dubai tournament, Andy Murray will face Philipp Kohlschreiber from Germany, a player with a consistent pace ranked 29th in the world. Against the German, Murray has a 4-1 lead in head-to-head matches, winning all 4 of their last meetings. The German prevailed once back in 2010 at their first jostle in the ATP World Tour.
Murray on Sharapova getting wildcard
According to ESPN, Andy Murray has no sympathy for those who receive a wildcard or more when they attempt to make their way back into the tennis elite. Maria Sharapova, whose doping-related ban is about to expire, already received 3 wildcard entries for Stuttgart, Madrid, and Rome, all being high-profile WTA events on clay.
Murray said that he is against those practices but he understands the organizers' point of view. A name like Sharapova will fill up an entire arena in no time. From a financial angle, to have Sharapova in the main draw will ensure a certain degree of exposure.
Meanwhile, in Dubai, the Scot is getting closer to a new ATP title, though he could bump into Roger Federer in the semis.
