Indian Wells: ‘Motivated’ Murray improves to 7-0 in deciding sets this year after another comeback win

Andy Murray made another comeback – this time at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Thursday. The Brit came from a set down to win for the seventh time in 2023, beating Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Murray, ranked No 55 in the world, needed three hours and 12 minutes for the win which sets up a second round showdown with 15th seed Pablo Carreno Busta.

“I worked very hard in the offseason to put myself in a great position physically, and I feel very motivated” – Murray

Speaking after the win, Murray said he was glad to be able to get through the match. “In some of the matches I managed to win this year, I felt like I was fortunate in some of them, whereas today I really had lots of chances in that third set. I wasn’t getting them and was getting really frustrated. He was coming up with some big serves at times but I also felt like I made some poor decisions as well. The more chances that went by the more you think about it. I did really well to keep going in the end… Another brutal match and glad I managed to get through it.”

With the win, Murray improves to 7-0 in deciding set matches in 2023, with all of his wins coming in a deciding set this year. The Brit said this was not down to coincidence and knew things would turn around for him after losing a bunch of close matches in 2022.

“I don’t think it is a coincidence, but last year I lost a lot of deciding sets. I was talking to my team about it, just saying like the law of averages… this can’t keep going. Once I won one I did feel like I would start to feel more comfortable in those situations. Thankfully that’s been the case. Obviously winning all seven, I’m aware that at some stage I’m going to lose one of them. I worked very hard in the offseason to put myself in a great position physically, and I feel very motivated. Even when I’ve gotten behind in matches I’ve kept fighting, kept trying to find solutions… I won some matches that certainly if some of these matches were played last year I wouldn’t have won them.”

Indian Wells Masters, other first-round matches (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 8.800.000, most recent results first):

• Pedro Martinez beat Marc-Andrea Huesler: 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4
• Alex Molcan beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas: 6-3, 6-2
• Marton Fucsovics beat J.J. Wolf: 1-6, 6-0, 6-3
• Ben Shelton beat Fabio Fognini: 6-4, 6-1
• Thanasi Kokkinakis (Q) beat Brandon Holt (WC): 6-4, 6-1
• Guido Pella beat Thiago Monteiro: 3-6, 7-5, 6-2
• Stan Wawrinka beat Aleksandar Vukic: 6-4, 1-6, 6-1
• Jack Draper beat Leandro Riedi (Q): 6-1, 6-1
• Jan-Lennard Struff (Q) beat Quentin Halys: 1-6, 6-3, 6-3
• Mackenzie McDonald beat Filip Krajinovic: 6-3, 6-0
• Tung-lin Wu beat Alexander Bublik: 6-4, 6-4
• Alejandro Tabilo (Q) beat Maximilian Marterer (Q): 6-4, 6-3
• Jordan Thompson beat Gael Monfils: 6-3, 6-1
• Diego Schwartzman beat Federico Coria: 6-1, 6-2
• Jiri Lehecka beat Arthur Rinderknech: 7-6 (4), 7-5
• Cristian Garin (Q) beat Daniel Elahi Galan: 6-4, 6-2
• Yibing Wu (WC) beat Jaume Munar: 6-7 (6), 6-0, 7-6 (3)
• Taro Daniel (Q) beat Roberto Carballes Baena: 6-1, 7-5
• Jason Kubler beat Lorenzo Sonego: 6-4, 7-6 (4)
• Pedro Cachin beat Nikoloz Basilashvili: 7-5, 6-3
• Emil Ruusuvuori beat Constant Lestienne: 6-4, 4-1 ret.
• Brandon Nakashima beat John Isner: 7-6 (7), 6-3
• Marcos Giron beat Aleksandar Kovacevic (WC): 6-3, 7-5
• Ugo Humbert beat Bernabe Zapata Miralles: 6-2, 7-6 (6)
• Oscar Otte beat Laslo Djere: 6-3, 7-5
• Ilya Ivashka beat Roman Safiullin: 6-4, 6-2
• Gregoire Barrere vs. Jack Sock
• Dominic Thiem vs. Adrian Mannarino
• Borna Gojo vs. Richard Gasquet
• Alexei Popyrin vs. Zhizhen Zhang
• Mikael Ymer vs. Rinky Hijikata

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