Muller comes through against Kecmanovic in Hong Kong after more than three hours of combat
After his victory over Marc-Andrea Huesler, Alexandre Muller followed up with the round of 16 in Hong Kong.
The Frenchman faced a tough test against Miomir Kecmanovic, ranked 54th in the world and winner of Luciano Darderi's first match of the season.
In this match, the two men put up a thrilling fight right down to the last point.
For a long time in this match, the Serb seemed in control, winning the first set 7 games to 5 and then breaking in the second.
But just as he was about to serve for the match at 6-5 in the second, his arm shook and Muller took the opportunity to come back.
In the tie-break, Alexandre Muller overcame a handicap to level at one set apiece (8 points to 6). The Frenchman seemed to reverse the trend and served for the match in his turn.
Despite two match points on his serve, Muller was unable to finish. Kecmanovic came back to tie and, quite logically in the end, the two men went to a tie-break in the third set.
Right to the end, this confrontation kept its promise and was indecisive.
Muller, who had got off to a poor start in the tiebreak, had a third match point at 6-5 on his opponent's serve, which he failed to convert. Both players came within one point of winning the match.
In turn, the Serb had the chance to close to 7 points to 6, then 8-7, but in the end, it was Muller who had the last word at the end of an irrespirable tie-break won 12 points to 10 on his 6th match point (5-7, 7-6, 7-6 in 3h22).
We can therefore look forward to a 100% French quarter-final in Hong Kong, as Alexandre Muller will play his quarter-final against Arthur Fils or Zizou Bergs, who meet this Wednesday.
Hong Kong 
