Tennis:Andy Murray felt he had taken a step forward as he dispatched US Open second-round opponent Ivan Dodig with the minimum of fuss under the lights at Flushing Meadows. The third seed had been a little off colour in his first round match against Alex Bogomolov even though the scoreline was comfortable, and this was certainly an improvement.
Murray, who will face 30th seed Feliciano Lopez or his fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar in the third round, broke the Dodig serve six times in total on his way to a 6-2 6-1 6-3 victory. The Scot said: “It was better than the first round, that’s for sure. It was pretty comfortable conditions out there today. There wasn’t really any wind, it was fairly cool as well. That helped.
“I moved better than I did in the first match and served better, and I was able to dictate more of the points because of that. I was much happier with the way I played.”
Eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic had earlier led the way on a day of comebacks at the US Open. Remarkably, nine players fought back from two sets down to win in the first round of the men’s singles at Flushing Meadows, equalling the record for the whole tournament set in 1989.
Tipsarevic, who reached his first grand slam quarter-final here last year, looked like he was on his way out when he trailed French wild card Guillaume Rufin by two sets, but the Serb fought his way back to win 4-6 3-6 6-2 6-3 6-2. Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller and Estonian Ernests Gulbis were the other marathon men on Wednesday.
Muller knocked out 28th seed Mikhail Youzhny 2-6 3-6 7-5 7-6 (8/6) 7-6 (8/6), while Gulbis ended the hopes of 21st seed Tommy Haas, winning 3-6 4-6 6-4 7-5 6-3.
There were much more comfortable victories for fourth seed David Ferrer, a 6-4 6-2 7-6 (7/3) winner over big-serving Kevin Anderson, and 2009 champion Juan Martin Del Potro, who defeated lucky loser Florent Serra 6-4 7-6 (7/4) 6-4.
Del Potro, who has been struggling with a left wrist problem, had been due to face fellow Argentinian David Nalbandian but he withdrew citing a rib injury. Ferrer, meanwhile, has been elevated into the top four because of the absence through injury of his fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal and is seeded to meet Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals.
Although he is more renowned for his exploits on clay, Ferrer has had just as good results on hard courts and reached the last four in New York in 2007, losing to Djokovic. Ferrer was very content with his performance, saying: “I feel good. It was not an easy match. He’s a really good player, he has a very strong first and second serve.”