Wimbledon - Classy Murray moves into third round

Eurosport - Fri, 27 Jun 10:51:00 2008

Andy Murray eased into the third round at Wimbledon with a 6-4 6-2 6-2 victory over 2002 semi-finalist Xavier Malisse of Belgium.

TENNIS Andy Murray Wimbledon 2008 second round - 0

The British number one looked in determined mood from the start, allying some glorious groundstrokes with his trademark nonchalance, and after almost breaking his opponent in the second game he secured a break of serve in the fifth when Malisse dragged a backhand into the net.

Murray looked unbeatable behind his own serve, and the first set duly arrived in just over half an hour.

A raking backhand winner from the Scot enabled him to break Malisse in the opening game of the second set, and he secured a double break when a clearly frustrated Malisse followed up a double fault with a netted forehand in the third game.

There was an ease to Murray's play suggestive of a player on top of his game. He built up a 4-0 second-set lead before unexpectedly allowing Malisse to break back to 4-2, but Murray responded by breaking straight back in the seventh game and taking the set by six games to two.

Murray caught Malisse cold again and broke early in the third set, before saving a break point in the following game with a brave backhand volley.

Malisse threatened to close the gap on Murray by bringing up a break point at 3-2 down, but Murray saved it with an ace and moved 4-2 ahead thanks to an emphatic forehand volley.

He turned on the style in the final two games of the match, producing some marvellous shots to take the third set 6-2 and seal his passage to round three, where he will face former world number three Tommy Haas.

Meanwhile, Chris Eaton's Wimbledon dream came to an end on Court One when he was beaten in straight sets by Dmitry Tursunov 7-6 6-2 6-4.

Eaton, who strings his own rackets and drives a car with a wing mirror fixed by duct tape, was at 661 the lowest ranked player in the men's draw.

The young Brit impressed in the first set, holding serve with real confidence until the tie-break, when Tursunov upped his game to win 7-2.

The second and third sets were much easier for the Russian, ranked 31 in the world, as he got a handle on the powerful youngster's serve, quelling the partisan home crowd and romping to a comfortable win as the evening drew in.

It was a good day for the Murray family with Andy's brother Jamie and partner Max Mirnyi winning their opening match in the doubles 7-6 (4) 7-6 (5) 6-3 over Marc Gicquel and Fabrice Santoro.

However, two other pairings, Neil Bamford and Joshua Goodall, and Alex Bogdanovic and Jonathan Marray, were both dumped out.

A miserable Wimbledon for Bogdanovic was then completed when he lost with partner Melaine South in the mixed doubles to Yves Allegro and Agnes Szavay.

In the women's doubles it was a similarly disappointing story as Anna Smith and Georgie Stoop, and Elena Baltacha and Naomi Cavaday both suffered first round defeats.

Tom Williams / Eurosport / Reuters

Comment 1 - 17 of 17

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  1. OLÉ Spain , greatings from Portugal

    From ruipgoncalo, on Sun 29 Jun 10:36PM

  2. Dear journalists,
    please do not mix and match words and numbers to describe scores for sets. It's bad english, and makes it difficult for readers to get to the point.

    thank you.

    From ynetdrive1, on Fri 27 Jun 1:25AM

  3. tough next round for murray but all the luck to him!! doing good so far, making the scots proud!

    From miss-fratelli, on Thu 26 Jun 10:45PM

  4. murray against haas... sorry andy.. but tommy wins...

    From Betty, Bina, on Thu 26 Jun 10:02PM

  5. JJ...
    Thanks for being alert and spotting the deliberate mistake! OK, it was a genuine mistake. Let me explain. Rather than consulting the draw every time I post a comment, I use my peerless photographic memory to construct a sophisticated mental image, which allows me to use both hands for typing (believe me, I know exactly what I mean). Seriously, thanks for pointing out the error and I hope Andy gets that far. He must have played well today. I saw Nadal's match and he looked very impressive as he has done recently. It could be a cracker. CHEERS

    From rhymes450, on Thu 26 Jun 8:45PM

  6. Rhymes...
    if Andy gets past Gasquet in the fourth round he's not gonna play Blake/Roddick in the quaters - its likely to be the world no.2 and two time runner-up Rafael Nadal....

    From JJ f, on Thu 26 Jun 8:16PM

  7. What's the point in bigging him up against the journeymen, Nadal and Fedderer will make him throw his toys out of the pram once again. Watch this space...

    From jinx, on Thu 26 Jun 7:40PM

  8. Go Andy - Britsh through and through

    From mattandjill, on Thu 26 Jun 7:39PM

  9. well done andy murray let us not get carried away and end up with an other tim henman

    From robertedmonds79, on Thu 26 Jun 7:33PM

  10. "You can never write the SCOT'S of. We live going forward and learn looking back. Oor Andy will mature and he will be King one day"

    Your last king had his head chopped off!!!!

    From captain.crashtested, on Thu 26 Jun 7:30PM

  11. Rhymes...
    if Andy gets past Gasquet in the fourth round he's not gonna play Blake/Roddick in the quaters - its likely to be the world no.2 and two time runner-up Rafael Nadal....

    From JJ f, on Thu 26 Jun 7:22PM

  12. You can never write the SCOT'S of. We live going forward and learn looking back. Oor Andy will mature and he will be King one day
    Bigcoke54

    From RONALD S, on Thu 26 Jun 6:31PM

  13. Andy Murray is marching to the Quarters. if he makes it further i'll mail him my very own rucket so that he can win

    From Mamello, on Thu 26 Jun 6:21PM

  14. rhymes450 andy is top class just a kid

    From DAVIE, on Thu 26 Jun 5:56PM

  15. well done andy can some1 please tell him 2 smile a little,,,,but as a scot you were top class you will easy be in the top 10 very soon,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,davie

    From DAVIE, on Thu 26 Jun 5:55PM

  16. nice one rhymes

    From ralph r, on Thu 26 Jun 5:51PM

  17. It's humble pie for me. I predicted an upset here and Andy's proved me wrong. It's not the first time I've been wrong (I predicted that Italy would beat Brazil in the 1970 World Cup Final on the basis that blue is a more substantial colour than yellow). One of the most charming aspects of my life is that I know so little about anything that everything is unpredictable. Andy is now on course for what looks to be a last-sixteen cracker against Gasquet and a possible Quarter final against Roddick or Blake. However, with my track record for predictions, that quarter final line-up will probably read something like A.N Other v W.O. Congrats to Andy and all you Scots. CHEERS AND GOOD VIBES

    From rhymes450, on Thu 26 Jun 5:24PM
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