In
a battle between the world"s two highest ranked teenagers, it was the
Serb Djokovic who showed the greater maturity to earn a quarter-final
clash with Fernando Gonzalez.
Murray will see the match as a missed opportunity however, after being a set and a break up.
In
the first set, the Scot completely dominated the 15th seed, winning
five games in a row after the first two games had gone to serve.
Then at 3-3 in the second set, Murray really looked like he had grabbed the initiative when he broke Djokovic to love.
However,
the Serb showed tremendous character to immediately break back, and
from then on in, he always looked the more composed player.
He
won the second set 7-5 thanks to another break, with Murray not helping
his cause in the final game of the set by giving Djokovic two break
points courtesy of a double fault.
Djokovic then won the first
three games of the third set, which marked a run of five games in
total, which essentially buried Murray's hopes.
Murray got his
service game back in shape before the end, but by that stage Djokovic
was firing plenty of bullets of his own, and the Serb never looked like
relinquishing his serve in the final set, and went on to clinch the
match on his second match point.
Djokovic now still has an
outside chance of qualify for the end of season Masters Cup, but
Murray's dream of playing in China would appear to be over.