Murray Makes Strong Start; Ferrer Saves Match Point

© Getty ImagesAndy Murray won his second clay-court match of the season.

ATP World Tour No. 4 Andy Murray came through a potentially testing encounter with Argentine qualifier Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 6-3 Wednesday to reach the third round of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, the third and final ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court tennis tournament.

The Scot, who came into Madrid looking to rediscover his form after only winning one clay-court match in two tournaments this season, made a strong start to the match as he raced to a 3-0, double-break lead. Chela was able to recoup one of the service breaks but could not prevent Murray from going on to close out the first set.

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Former Top 15 player Chela looked set to stage a comeback as he broke Murray’s serve in the opening game of the second set. But Murray responded immediately to level and later broke serve again to love in the sixth game before sealing victory in 73 minutes.

"It was good, better than last week and that's all I'm looking to do just now, just improve every week and start playing better," said Murray. "I definitely hit the ball very clean today, hit a lot of winners and dictated most of the rallies, so it was good. He's probably going to be back in the Top 50 in the world so it was a good win for me on clay. The result was pretty convincing."

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The 22-year-old Murray reached his second Grand Slam final at the start of the season, finishing runner-up to Roger Federer at the Australian Open. As he looks to reach his third quarter-final of the year Murray will face Romanian Victor Hanescu, who ended the run of Spanish qualifier Daniel Munoz-De La Nava with a 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 victory in one hour and 41 minutes.

Spaniard David Ferrer called on all his famed fighting qualities as he saved one match point to defeat Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 1-6, 6-3, 7-5. Baghdatis had led 4-2, 40/0 in the final set and held a match point on Ferrer’s serve in the 10th game before the ninth seed hit back to win the final three games and seal victory in two hours and 38 minutes.

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World No. 12 Ferrer has been in a rich vein of form of late, reaching his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final two weeks ago at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia (l. to Nadal). He also reached two clay-court finals in Latin America in February, finishing runner-up in Buenos Aires (l. to Ferrero) before capturing his eighth ATP World Tour title in Acapulco (d. Ferrero).

Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez also advanced to the second round at the expense of seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who was forced to retire with a lower back injury after losing the first set 6-2.