Davis Cup - Murray draws Britain level

Eurosport - Sat, 20 Sep 13:45:00 2008

Great Britain and Austria are level on a 1-1 scoreline after the opening day's singles of their Davis Cup play-off went as expected at Wimbledon.

TENNIS Andy Murray v Alex Peya Great Britain v Austria Wimbledon Davis Cup 2008 - 0

Britain's top dog Andy Murray levelled proceedings with a comfortable 6-4 6-1 6-3 win over Alexander Peya, after Austrian number one Jurgen Melzer had earlier fought back to defeat Alex Bogdanovic in four sets.

Murray never had to get out of second gear in his match with Peya, and British captain David Lloyd might now be tempted to start him with brother Jamie in the doubles tomorrow ahead of Ross Hutchins.

Murray, who moved up to world number four after his run to the final of the US Open, broke in the opening game of both the first and second sets meaning he was always in control.

It took him until the sixth game to break in the final set and then Peya managed to break straight back to get back into things.

However, it was only a brief respite as Murray then broke to love before serving out the match.

Earlier, Alex Bogdanovic couldn't earn Britain a surprise win in the opening rubber as he lost 3-6 7-6 (3) 6-2 6-1 to Austria's top player Melzer despite a gutsy performance.

The British number two, who previously had never taken a set in a live Davis Cup rubber, had looked to have the measure of a player ranked over 100 places higher than him, as he held a 4-1 lead in the second set after taking the first.

Melzer was out of sorts for a set-and-a-half as he got into trouble with over ambitious shot-making and he looked all set to implode when he went 15-40 down in the sixth game of the second set.

However, Melzer managed to hold in that game and avoid the double break before immediately breaking back, and after that the whole pattern of the game changed.

Melzer's body language and play improved considerably and he had a little too much quality for Bogdanovic, especially after taking the second set in a tie-break.

The players exchanged breaks early in the third set but then it was all about the Austrian; Bogdanovic's performance level remained pretty consistent but Melzer's serving and returning finally resembled that of a Top 50 player, as he dominated for the remainder of the contest.

The winner of the tie, which concludes with the reverse singles on Sunday, remains in the elite Davis Cup World Group for next season.

Follow LIVE comments of the doubles rubber here on Eurosport.yahoo.co.uk at 13:00 (British time) on Saturday.

Seán Fay / Eurosport

Comment 1 - 11 of 11

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  1. Leave Alex alone - he works as hard as he can and is a­ decent player - find a better player in this elitist­ bullsiht tennis hierachy where only the rich ever get a­ chance to play

    From adam j, on Sat 20 Sep 6:56AM

  2. You could give "anyone else a chance", but­ the reality is that any tennis player representing­ Britain, with the exception of Andy Murray, would be­ second favourite against a player of the calibre of­ Jurgen Meltzer. No mention is made of who the­ "anyone" is that would have won against the­ Austrian No. 1. It doesn't take a genius to point­ out that the No.150 is unlikely to beat the No.40 but­ it does seem that Bogdanovich gave it a pretty good go.­ You can be sure that there are plenty of British tennis­ players who would have done worse. Hardly his fault­ that Britain doesn't have better tennis players to­ replace him. Very few "talentless" people get­ to play pro tennis at the level that Bogdanovich has.­ It's a bit too competitive for that. CHEERS

    From rhymes450, on Sat 20 Sep 5:45AM

  3. Well, interesting reports covering those Davis Cup­ matches. Oh, almost forgot, I couldn't find­ anything on the rubber Slovakia vs. Serbia. I thought­ Serbia also belonged to the first division of Davis­ Cup. Tell me if I was wrong, please. Anyway, I would­ always prefer Serbia's win to greater media­ covering of its matches.

    From milovan, on Sat 20 Sep 5:32AM

  4. Boggy plays Peya next ...Boggy is ranked 162 Peya 164­ lets see how he plays that match before we overly­ criticise the BOG

    From mark l, on Fri 19 Sep 11:42PM

  5. Andy beat no.99. Glory!

    From Jimmy, on Fri 19 Sep 11:35PM

  6. WEATHER IS bALMY!

    From John, on Fri 19 Sep 11:16PM

  7. Quite frankly - we may as well give Austria ( or any­ other country for that matter ) a 2-0 head start and­ then hope Andy Murray can win his single matches and­ double up with brother Jamie for the doubles to squeak­ a win - Bogdanovic is absolutely talentless in this­ sort of event and totally out of his depth - he's­ played 8 matches at Wimbledon and lost them all and­ played 6 Davis Cup rubbers and guess what ? - lost them­ all - about time they gave anyone else a chance at­ playing - they can't do any worse than Bogdanovic.

    From michael b, on Fri 19 Sep 10:45PM

  8. Wimbledon in September fantastic work by the LTA should­ be nice and Balmy ! not !

    From the scots view, on Fri 19 Sep 12:43PM

  9. Meltzer should rather be more concerned about himself.

    From BasudevAmit, on Fri 19 Sep 12:44AM

  10. LOL to Meltzer!

    From toriq, on Thu 18 Sep 9:39PM

  11. As if Jurgen Melzer would know anything about­ re-adjusting after a good run in a slam event. He's­ hardly done anything in the sport and has never got­ very far in the Slams. A comment like that from Federer­ or another slam performer would have been justified but­ Meltzer?? Come on now!

    From crispyduck, on Thu 18 Sep 4:41PM
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