Tennis: Murray vows to improve

Andy Murray admitted he has plenty of room for improvement as he prepared to meet big-hitting Latvian Ernests Gulbis in the third round of the Cincinnati Masters tonight.

The Scot survived a nightmare second set to edge past world No.?58 Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-7 (7-3), 6-2 last night and book his tie with Gulbis, who beat Jurgen Melzer.

Murray said: "He (Gulbis) is a good player. He's got a really big game quite similar to Chardy." Murray boasts a 4-0 career record against the Latvian. Murray can ill afford more mistakes of the kind he made against Chardy after seeming set for a quickfire victory when he raced through the first set.

The second set was a different matter as he dropped three consecutive service games - as did Chardy - before blowing a match point on serve at 5-4 and being nudged into a tie-break, where he lost six points in a row to lose the set.

Murray fought back immediately at the start of the third set, showing glimpses of the form that had swept him past Roger Federer to win the Rogers Cup in Toronto last weekend.

He broke the tiring Chardy twice to triumph in two hours nine minutes.