Murray scrapes past Cachin to reach quarter-finals in Gijon

Former world No 1 Andy Murray survived an intense battle as he reached the quarter-finals of the Gijon Open by edging out Argentinian Pedro Cachin 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3) at the Palacio de Deportes on Thursday.

Murray, a wildcard entrant ranked No 48, will face the winner of the match between American Sebastian Korda and Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, the No 3 seed, next.

“In the first set I didn’t play well,” Murray admitted. “Pedro served very well and I couldn’t break. But I fought hard and managed to return and serve better in the second and third sets.

“Maybe I didn’t play as well as in my previous match against (Alejandro) Davidovich Fokina but I fought well and I think that’s the most important thing.”

In the previous round in Gijon, Murray beat Spaniard Davidovich Fokina, the No 6 seed 7-5, 6-2.

Cachin, ranked No 61, won against Russian qualifier Alexey Vatutin (7-6 (2), 6-0).

Gijon ATP 250, other second-round results (Palacio deportes, EUR 612.000, most recent results first):

• Sebastian Korda vs. Roberto Bautista Agut
• Andrey Rublev vs. Ilya Ivashka
• Francisco Cerundolo (4) beat Manuel Guinard (Q): 7-6 (5), 6-2
• Dominic Thiem beat Marcos Giron: 3-6, 6-4, 6-0
• Pablo Carreno Busta (2) beat Thiago Monteiro: 6-4, 7-6 (3)
• Tommy Paul (5) beat Nicolas Alvarez Varona (Q): 6-3, 7-6 (3)
• Arthur Rinderknech beat Constant Lestienne: 6-4, 6-2