European Open: Andy Murray battles past Romania's Marius Copil to reach semi-final

British tennis maestro Andy Murray survived a scare against Marius Copil of Romania in a three-set thriller to book his place in the semi-final of the ongoing European Open in Antwerp on Saturday. 

After comfortably winning the opening set, the 32-year-old failed to capitalise on the same and went down in the second before he rebounded strongly to eventually clinch a 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-4 triumph over his Romanian opponent in a thrilling last-eight clash that lasted almost than three hours.

Reflecting on his clash, Murray admitted that Copil served really well and was a lot more aggressive than him towards the end of the second and third sets, but he somehow managed to get the break towards the end to seal victory. 

"I haven’t played loads of matches the past few years, so when you get to the end of the match, it’s always difficult to serve it out. I played a bad game at 5-3 in the second set and after that I think he gained a lot of confidence,” the Association for Tennis Professionals (ATP) quoted Murray as saying about the match. 

“He served extremely well. He was being a lot more aggressive at the end of the second set and in the third, but thankfully I managed to get the break right at the end. It was a tough one to get through," he added. 

Murray, who is currently ranked to a lowly 243rd spot in the world, has now made it to his first-ever semi-final since his return to the singles court in Cincinnati as well as since his comeback to the 2017 French Open in Roland Garros. 

The British tennis maestro will now lock horns with France's Ugo Humbert for a place in the summit showdown of the tournament. Humbert saw off Argentine Guido Pella 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 to cement his spot in the last-four of the men's singles event of the tournament.