Andy Murray Reaches 4th Round At Sony Open
KEY BISCAYNE (AP) — Two-time Key Biscayne champion Andy Murray advanced to the fourth round at the Sony Open by beating familiar foil Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 6-1 Sunday.
The tournament is the first for Murray since he parted with coach Ivan Lendl, who lives in Florida and was among the spectators.
"We're back together again. It was only a four- or five-day split," Murray joked. "No, it's a shame he won't be watching many more of my matches from the stands."
Lendl worked for two years with Murray and helped him win Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, an Olympic gold medal and last year's Key Biscayne title.
The No. 6-seeded Murray moved one round closer to a potential quarterfinal against Novak Djokovic. Murray returned well and made the most of his chances at the net to improve to 9-0 against Lopez, seeded 32nd.
Murray's next opponent will be No. 11-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who outlasted Marcos Baghdatis on a sunny, 85-degree afternoon, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 7-5. Tsonga rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the tiebreaker.
Li Na overcame three set points to overtake American Madison Keys 7-6 (3), 6-3. The No. 2-seeded Li, the reigning Australian Open champion, won even though she had seven double-faults and was broken four times.
Keys failed to convert her set points serving at 5-3 in the first set. She also squandered a lead in the second set, when three times she was within a point of going up 3-love against Li.
"She's No. 2 in the world for a reason," Keys said. "She just won Australian Open for a reason. She's a great player. I played well at times, and she just played the bigger points really, really well."
American CoCo Vandeweghe earned a shot at Serena Williams in Monday's fourth round by winning a match that ended at 2:29 a.m. Sunday. Vandeweghe, a qualifier ranked No. 104, rallied past 2011 U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur 5-7, 7-5, 7-5.
The match began shortly before midnight Saturday and ended with a handful of spectators in the stadium.
Vandeweghe has never previously been beyond the first round at Key Biscayne.
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