Stage set for Andy Murray after Nicolas Almagro retires

It may have had more to do with the fact that he had won five points in the last six games he played rather than any nagging pain in his ankle, but Nicolas Almagro quit on his stool last night, speeding Andy Murray’s passage into the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Open on a sultry evening under the lights.
These helping hands in major championships do not come along that often, so the fact that Murray played only 37 minutes of tennis should be taken as a positive gesture and move purposefully on, having shown only fitful authority in his first two matches. Now, tomorrow, he will play Robin Soderling of Sweden, with whom the British No 1 has not crossed swords with in four years.
Soderling’s steady ranking improvement, the fact that he reached last year’s French Open final, having beaten four-time champion Rafael Nadal on the way, his arrival into the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals of the 02 arena last November and his crushing victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France in the fourth round yesterday, serve to confirm that the No 6 seed is an opponent not to be underestimated.
But there are opportunities everywhere. The loss of the top two seeds Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic – beaten by Croatian veteran Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets after running himself into the ground during February – Nikolay Davydenko’s wrist injury and the inability of Federer’s conqueror Marcos Baghdatis to rise above Tommy Robredo’s steadiness yesterday, means that the field has lost a clutch of performers considered to have a champion’s potential. Murray and Nadal, who were finalists a year ago, appear best placed.
As brief as the work-out was for the Scot, it was full of good things. Almagro is a flashy player and so much depends on whether you stay with him and indicate that you possess a robustness he would find difficult to break down. When Murray lost his serve in the third game – a net cord contrived to help the Spaniard on the second break point – his response was truly emphatic.
Defensively brilliant – he had to contend with some massive Almagro service returns and still managed to be able to control the rallies – and picking off the Spaniard at will as the first set went on, Murray was soon in complete control, enough for Almagro to be lashing at the ball rather than striking it with much intended control.
At the end of the set, his left ankle was strapped and when Murray thumped down an ace to win the first game of the second set, Almagro decided that it was fruitless to continue playing.
Nadal was absolutely thrilled with his 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 victory over John Isner, the giant American whose serve was just off enough in the third set for it to cost him dear. The Spaniard, playing his first tournament since the Australian Open, has begun to look like the Rafa of old and had enough in reserve to go out 45 minutes later and win a doubles match with Marc Lopez, his partner, against Michael Llodra of France and Israel’s Andy Ram, 6-2, 6-4.
“He (Isner) is a very dangerous player, maybe he will make a really, really top player," Nadal said. "When you have a serve like this – maybe I had better not talk any more because if he improves just a little it is going to be very difficult to stop him.”
Nadal meets Tomas Berdych, the No 19 seed from the Czech Republic, in today's quarter-final.
Source:The Times