Wednesday 22 June 2011

Unstretched Murray Progresses At Wimbledon

There were no dramas on Wimbledon's No. 1 court as Andy Murray never broke sweat in a comfortable 6-3 6-3 7-5 victory over Germany's Tobias Kamke.

There were occasional flashes of talent from the spirited German but he never really pushed the fourth seed beyond his means, failing to take the only chance he had at a break point. Murray never broke sweat in the first set as he took the game straight to his opponent, breaking Kamke in both the first and last games. The second was much tighter in it's early stages, Murray saving a break point at 3-3 before winning three straight games to once again take the set with a 6-3 scoreline.

In what would turn out to be the final set of the match both players held firm in their service games before the breakthrough finally went the way of the Scot, taking the eleventh game off Kamke's serve before holding his own to stroll into the third round.

Though Murray's first serve percentage dropped to a measly 54 he was invariably dominant and when he got it right at the first time of asking he took 84% of the points as Kamke never imposed himself on Murray's serve, something the Scot was well aware of when he spoke to the BBC afterwards.

"I served well, but the rest of my game needs some work. He was hitting the ball flat so it was hard to get into a rhythm. I need to use my legs better, get in the right positions for the ball."

Indeed, though Murray's final victory was comfortable he failed to get himself out of second gear, not that he particularly needed to. There was no free flowing, extravagant stroke play, little flair and no impression was made as to why the Rolland Garros semi-finalist should be a true challenger for the SW19 title. He will, no doubt, have to step up his game when he takes on his next opponent, the 6'4" Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, winner today in straight sets against Sergiy Stakhovsky.

The pair have met six times previously with the current record standing at three wins apiece, Ljubicic taking the last victory 6-3 6-2 on the hard courts in Beijing last year. Five of the six meetings, in fact, have been on hard courts, the other being on carpet, meaning that this will be their first face off on grass as well as their first in grand slam tennis.

One of the most notable things about Murray's appearance was the fact that his match was scheduled on Court 1, no favouritism being shown to Britain's only remaining male by the tournament schedulers, and if it weren't for the rain holding itself back as the afternoon progressed it could have been that Murray may have had to make a return to action tomorrow as opposed to playing under the Centre Court roof until the curtailment of his game today.

The change of territory was taken in Murray's stride, however, though he did note the slight difference from his usual surroundings.

"It's a little bit different on Court One", said the Queens Club champion, "It's very open, so the sun is more of a factor."

The Scot's relegation to the 11,500 seater second court came as even more of a surprise when the order of play was released, the main event on centre being the clash between eighth seed Andy Roddick and Romanian Victor Hanescu, ranked back at 63 in the ATP standings.

At the end of the day the British number 1 will be delighted to progress into the next round having once again had the chance to test himself on the grass courts while not having a great deal of wind taken out of his sails.

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