Erste Bank Open 2014: Daily Scores, Results and Draw Schedule
Andy Murray and David Ferrer have both taken wild cards in order to compete at the 2014 Erste Bank Open in Vienna this week as the pair attempt to pick up the points they need to book a spot in London's season-ending ATP World Tour Finals.
Only the top eight ranked players qualify for the tournament in England's capital and Ferrer and Murray currently sit ninth and 10th respectively with Milos Raonic holding the final spot.
The Spaniard leap-frogged the two-time Grand Slam winner last week when he beat Murray in three sets at the Shanghai Masters.
While Murray looked fatigued on that occasion, Ferrer looks to be finding some form and is the top seed in Austria as he bids for a spot in London.
Murray is appearing in Vienna for the first time and as the second seed, meaning that if all goes to form, he and Ferrer could meet in the final.
He is looking to pick up as many ranking points as he possibly can and has tournament victory firmly in his mind, per the tournament's website (h/t Sky Sports):
"I'm looking forward to playing my first match here. I will try to play my best tennis. If I succeed, I’m sure to have a good chance to win the tournament. But the field is strong and the surface fairly quick. In such circumstances they often decide a few points about the outcome of a match.
"
Along with Murray and Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez and Philipp Kohlschreiber—the third and fourth seeds respectively—all had a bye through the first round.
Thus, for those four players, four wins will see them to victory at the Stadthalle but there is plenty of scope for upsets during the week with a strong field on show.
With the chance of a London spot on the line, both Murray and Ferrer are likely to bring their best game to Vienna and put on a good show with the stakes so high.
Schedule
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Seeding
1. David Ferrer (ESP)
2. Andy Murray (GBR)
3. Feliciano Lopez (ESP)
4. Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER)
5. Lukas Rosol (CZE)
6. Ivo Karlovic (CRO)
7. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP)
8. Dominic Thiem (AUT)
All seedings courtesy of atpworldtour.com.
For the full Erste Bank Open draw, click here.
The Race To London rankings can be found here.
Oct. 19: Murray Boosts Tour Finals Bid with Title in Austria
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Andy Murray came from a set behind to win the Vienna Open on Sunday afternoon, beating last week's nemesis David Ferrer 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 to overtake the Spaniard in the race to London rankings.
The Scot, winning his 30th ATP Tour title, moves up to seventh in the standings with the top eight qualifying for the ATP Tour Finals and only tournaments in Valencia and Paris to play.
The success over Ferrer, one of his major rivals for a spot at the O2 arena event, will be all the more sweet for his defeat to the same opponent in Shanghai just a week ago.
According to BBC Sport's live coverage of the match, Murray said of his success and Tour Finals hopes:
"It always feels good to win a tournament. It was an extremely difficult match. He deserved to win the first set, I deserved the second and the third could have gone either way. But it's been a great week and I'm very happy.
It's the same for both of us. He won in Shanghai last week, I won here. Whoever qualifies for the finals will deserve it. It's the best players over the 12 months. We'll see over the next weeks, but it's going to be very close.
"
Having already clawed back from one break down in the first set, Murray found himself under fire from the Spaniard when serving to remain in the set at 6-5 down. While he managed to save two of three break points, the damage proved to be too much as Ferrer soared into an early lead.
Murray, though, responded well to break early in the second and stamp home his advantage, breaking again four games later to win the set comfortably 6-2 and level the scoring. Having failed to create too many opportunities early in the match, the Scot was beginning to enjoy himself on his opponent's serve.
The trend continued in the final set also, with Murray breaking three times en-route to success. However, familiar issues with his own serve that have been so evident at times in this difficult year remained.
Ultimately, though, his returning prowess proved too much for Ferrer and he was able to avoid the pressure of a final-set tiebreak by holding his nerve to seal the match having broken to make the score 6-5.
Having only won his first tournament of 2014 three weeks ago in Shenzhen, Murray will be delighted to have sealed a follow-up success so quickly to boost not only his hopes of reaching the Tour Finals but also his confidence after recent difficulties.
Murray's next outing comes next week in Valencia in a tournament worth 500 points before heading to Paris where another 1,000 are on offer. Per BBC Sport figures, his win in Austria places him 110 points ahead of ninth-placed Ferrer leading up to the two events.
Oct. 18: Murray to Face Ferrer in Final
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Oct.18 Results
Men's Singles Semi-finals
No. 2 Andy Murray defeats Viktor Troicki: 6-4, 6-3
No. 1 David Ferrer defeats No. 4 Philipp Kohlschreiber: 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(3)
Men's Doubles Semi-Finals
Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner defeat Santiago Gonzalez and Lukas Rosol: 6-2, 7-5
Andy Murray eased into the 2014 Erste Bank Open final on Saturday with an efficient two-set victory over Serbian Viktor Troicki in the last four.
It is Murray's second final of the season—after last month's Shenzhen Open victory—as the Scot looks to break into the top eight in the world rankings and qualify for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.
Having not dropped a set in his previous rounds in Vienna against Vasek Pospisil and Jan-Lennard Struff, Murray took a break in the fifth game against Troicki only to hand it straight back and tie things up at 3-3.
However, a crucial break from the two-time Grand Slam champion at 4-4 gave Murray the opportunity to serve for the opener and this time he made no mistake.
A much simpler second set for Murray saw him hold his serve throughout and claim two breaks of Troicki's serve to win the match and reach the final in under 90 minutes, the Scot stating post-game that he felt his game was improving, per LiveTennis.com:
"I've been getting a bit better with each match. I need to play well on some key points. Whomever I play in the final, it won't be easy. David will be tough for sure, he's very motivated, like myself, for London.
"
He will now indeed face top-seed David Ferrer—who is also aiming to reach London's Finals—in Sunday's final at the Stadthalle after the Spaniard came through a tough semi against Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Ferrer took advantage with an early break in the first set and seemed set for an easy victory as he ran away with the opener, winning it 6-3.
However, German Kohlschreiber kicked things up a gear in the second set and took advantage of some sloppy play from Ferrer to take it with ease 6-2.
It looked as though the No. 1 seed may be on his way out of the tournament but a tense decider eventually went down to a tie-break and the Spaniard showed hos quality to take a hard-fought win.
The last time the pair met, the Spaniard came out on top in Shanghai last week, but Ferrer's extra hour of play on Saturday could be telling in what is sure to be a tight final.
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Oct. 17: Murray Easily Qualifies for Semi-Finals, Will Face Troicki
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Oct.17 Results
Men's Singles Quarter-Finals
No. 2 Andy Murray defeats Jan-Lennard Struff: 6-2, 7-5
No. 4 Pilipp Kolschreiber defeats Benjamin Becker: 6-4, 7-6
Viktor Troicki defeats Thomasz Bellucci: 7-6, 6-7, 6-2
No. 1 David Ferrer defeats No. 6 Ivo Karlovic: 7-6, 6-4
Andy Murray comfortably handled Jan-Lennard Struff in the quarter-finals of the 2014 Erste Bank Open, beating the German in straight sets 6-2, 7-5.
The Scot surrendered just a single break point and looked in complete control from the start, converting an impressive 86 percent of points on his first serve. The 27-year-old is still on pace to move into the top eight for the Race to London, needing a win in Vienna to do so.
Murray's first serve looked excellent in the first set, hitting six aces and not allowing his 24-year-old opponent to score a single point off his first serve. Struff managed a break early in the second set, but Murray immediately returned the favour and broke the German at 5-5, setting up the win.
Viktor Troicki will be waiting for the Scot in the semi-final, after the Serb needed three sets to get past Brazil's Thomasz Bellucci. The match will mark the first time both players meet since Murray called Troicki "unprofessional" for failing a blood test, via ESPN.
Troicki told ESPN he didn't hold it against him, while expressing joy at making his first semi-final appearance since 2011:
"I don't think he knew the whole story behind it. I don't have anything against him, it was just his opinion. I know him okay but he was never like such a great friend that I expected support from him.
My goal is to get as soon as possible to top 100. I am on a good way. It's a long time since I played semi-finals and it means even more if you come from qualifying.
"
The Serb struggled with his first serve, hitting on just 51 percent of his attempts and coming away with six double faults. He'll have to do better to get past Murray, although he will receive some added motivation from the Scot's comments.
Philipp Kolschreiber defeated Benjamin Becker in an all-German quarterfinal to set up a meeting with David Ferrer, who defeated Ivo Karlovic in the final singles match of the day.
Oct. 16: Murray and Ferrer Both Advance While Seeds Falter
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Oct. 16 Results
Men's Singles Round 2
No. 2 Andy Murray defeats Vasek Pospisil: 6-4, 6-4
No. 1 David Ferrer defeats Tobias Kamke: 7-5, 6-1
Viktor Troicki defeats No. 5 Lukas Rosol: 6-3, 6-2
Jan-Lennard Struff defeats Sergiy Stakhovsky: 7-6(6), 2-6, 7-6(3)
Benjamin Becker defeats Robin Haase: 6-3, 6-3
Thomaz Bellucci defeats No. 3 Feliciano Lopez: 6-7(9), 6-1, 6-4
Men's Doubles Quarter-Finals
Andre Begemann and Julian Knowle defeat Mariusz Fyrstenberg and David Marrero: 6-2, 7-5
Marin Draganja and Florin Mergea defeat Christopher Kas and Philipp Kohlschreiber: 3-6, 6-2, 10-8
Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner defeat Mate Pavic and Andre Sa: 6-4, 6-2
Santiago Gonzalez and Lukas Rosol defeat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Philipp Oswald: 7-6(4), 6-4
Andy Murray got his first Erste Bank Open campaign off to a good start Thursday as he won in two sets against Canadian Vasek Pospisil and kept his hopes of claiming an ATP World Tour Finals spot alive.
The first set in Vienna went with serve until Murray broke his opponent at the opportune moment to make it 5-4 and claimed the opener in the next game.
On a roll, the Scot broke early in the second and looked set to run away with the match. As it happened, Pospisil claimed a break of his own soon after to tie things up at 3-3.
However, once again Murray's timing was impeccable as he broke for 5-4 and served out the match with ease to claim a relatively comfortable win. He will now face Jan-Lennard Struff in the quarter-finals.
David Ferrer made his way through to the quarter-finals in impressive fashion as he held his serve well to beat Germany's Tobias Kamke in two sets.
A tough opener was eventually won by the Spaniard 7-5 before Ferrer kicked on and hit a forehand winner to take the set 6-1 and advance to the last eight, where he will face sixth-seeded Ivo Karlovic. Ferrer needs to reach the final to improve his chances of making the London Finals, his highest priority, per the ATP World Tour.
"Of course it is my goal," he said. "I am fighting for the ATP World Tour Finals in London. It's important for me. We don't have too many tournaments. We have only three tournaments more to be in London."
Two seeded players were knocked out of the competition Thursday as Feliciano Lopez fell to Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci and Lukas Rosol lost in straight sets to Viktor Troicki.
Lopez—fresh from defeating Rafael Nadal last week—lost eight games in a row from two games into the second set and was eventually convincingly dispatched.
Struff won his match against Sergiy Stakhovsky with the help of two tiebreaks, winning seven consecutive points in the crucial third-set decider for the match win.
Meanwhile, last year's finalist Robin Haase was ousted by Benjamin Becker in a convincing two-set win, the victor setting up an all-German quarter-final with Philipp Kohlschreiber.
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