Murray happy to follow Rafa's lead

Andy Murray admitted he had taken a leaf out of Rafael Nadal’s book during his victory against Simone Bolelli in the Madrid Open last night.

The world number three booked his place in the third round with a hard-fought 7-6 (11/9) 6-4 victory over the Italian to set up a meeting with 16th-seeded Tommy Robredo.

Murray was forced to dig deep to see off a player ranked 58 places below him, and revealed his tactics in the match had been influenced by the world number one.

Murray was standing well behind the baseline at the start of the match as his opponent looked to take the attack to the Scot.

The tactic appeared to back up Murray’s claims on Monday that he had been inspired by the efforts of Nadal in adapting his devastating form on clay to the grass courts, culminating in his win in the final of Wimbledon last year.

Traditionally stronger on hard courts, Murray is seeking to hone his skills on clay, and took his lead from Nadal yesterday.

“It’s tough on new court conditions to be playing right up on the baseline at the start of the match and towards the end I started to work my way closer and closer to the baseline,” said Murray.

“But if you watch someone like Rafa at the start of matches you will see him a long way behind the baseline making a lot of balls, trying to play solid and the more confidence he gets he moves closer and closer to the baseline, and that’s what I did today.”

After finding the going tough against Bolelli, Murray declared himself “very happy” with his performance in going through in straight sets.

Murray had beaten Bolelli in their only previous meeting when, coincidentally at the same stage of this tournament seven months ago, the Italian retired when trailing 6-0 and 2-1.

Bolelli ensured Murray had to work much harder for his win yesterday and had a break point in the fourth game before having two chances to win the opening set in the tie-break.

“I felt really good on the court and hardly mis-hit a ball all match,” said Murray, who admitted he was disappointed to see one particular line call go against him at a potentially critically time.

“The first set was tough obviously. I was very, very sure that the first serve I hit was in on the first set point.

“When I went around and saw the mark I was even more certain.

“It was tough to come back from that but I played some good points. Overall I was very happy with the way I played and especially the way I moved.”