Andy Murray feels the heat after taking on too much liquid

ANDY Murray blamed over-hydration for the discomfort which threatened to derail his Sony Ericsson Open title bid.Murray, the 2009 champion, made it through to the semi- finals in Miami with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Janko Tipsarevic late on Wednesday night, setting up a last-four clash with Rafael Nadal who battled to a three-set win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

But it was far from easy as the Scot battled discomfort in a lengthy match, calling for trainer Jez Green in the second set and complaining he was struggling to keep fluids down.

Murray believes the problem was down to drinking too much before the match.

“I have this thing that tests how hydrated you are, which I used for the match, and [afterwards] I was very hydrated, even though I’d drunk nothing the last couple of sets,” he said.

“So I don’t know if I drunk too much beforehand and kind of over-hydrated and my stomach was filled with liquid. Each time I took a sip I wanted to burp, basically. I drank very, very little the last two sets. It must have been something to do with that.

“It was so hot and humid, and to come off the court hydrated after not really drinking would probably suggest that I had drunk way too much.”

The world No 4 lost the first set 6-4, with several unforced errors proving costly after he led 4-2. He then lost the first two games of the second set meaning his opponent had won six in a row. But, after speaking to Green, Murray looked more like his old self the longer the set went on, 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. However, Tipsarevic was not willing to lie down, and forced Murray all the way to break point before finally conceding the eighth.

From there, the Scot took advantage of a tiring opponent to force his way through a hard-fourth match.

Murray added on www.atptour.com: “Today’s match was really important for me to get through after how it was going.”

He continued: “[They were] tough, tough conditions. But I thought I struck the ball pretty well from the back of the court.

“I was hitting it pretty clean, but needed to make better shot selection.

“Because of the wind, I was maybe trying to hit it too close to the line and not building the points as much I needed to. So when I did that, I did a bit better.”