• Scot struggles to keep food down at Sony Ericsson Open
• World No4 beats Serb 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
Andy Murray made it through to the semi-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic on Wednesday night. But it was far from easy as the Scot battled illness in a lengthy match.
The British No1 lost the first set 6-4, with several unforced errors proving costly after leading 4-2. Murray was broken in the first game of the second set, at which point the Scot complained of struggling to keep fluids down. No time-out was needed and the 24-year-old looked more like his old self the longer the set progressed, winning it 6-3 to level the match.
Murray broke Tipsarevic in the third game of the final set to establish a 2-1 lead, with the Serbian calling for the trainer immediately after as he received treatment to his feet. A sloppy mistake from Murray prolonged the sixth game, but he eventually took it to go 4-2 up. Tipsarevic was not willing to lie down, and forced Murray all the way to break point before conceding the eighth. From there, the Scot took advantage of a tiring opponent to force his way through a hard-fourth match.
The Scot was broken in the first match of the day by the ninth seed, but he immediately broke back and held serve. The contest went with serve until the sixth game, when Murray broke to establish control of the first set. There was no indication of the struggles to follow for the Scot. Tipsarevic immediately broke back and held serve to square things up at 4-4, before breaking the Scot in the ninth game. An ace gave the ninth-seeded Serbian two set points and he repeated the feat with the next point to land the set in 53 minutes. Things failed to improve for Murray as he was broken in the first game of the second set. Tipsarevic held serve to win a sixth successive game, before Murray stopped the rot in the third game.
The Scot broke his opponent in the fourth game to level, but the topsy-turvy nature of the contest continued when Tipsarevic took the second of two break points to go 3-2 ahead.
Murray broke back to love and take his run of points on Tipsarevic's serve to seven in a row, then held serve and broke again. The Scot took the first of two set points to win the set in 51 minutes and make sure the match went the distance.