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Murray and Stosur start with impressive victories

OLYMPIC CHAMPION Andy Murray began his US Open campaign with a routine 6-2 6-4 6-1 victory over Russian Alex Bogomolov Jr in …

Tue Aug 28 2012 - 01:00

OLYMPIC CHAMPION Andy Murray began his US Open campaign with a routine 6-2 6-4 6-1 victory over Russian Alex Bogomolov Jr in the first round at Flushing Meadows yesterday.

The match began with four consecutive breaks of serve before Briton Murray, the third seed attempting to win his first Grand Slam championship, steadied to win in two hours and 15 minutes.

The Scotsman trailed 4-2 in the second set and had been one point from falling behind by a double break. But the Russian was unable to capitalise and Murray will now face either Croatian Ivan Dodig or Japanese qualifier Hiroki Moriya in the second round.

Meanwhile, Sam Stosur picked up right where she left off 12 months ago with an impressive start to her US Open title defence yesterday.

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The Australian, who won her first grand slam title at Flushing Meadows last year, crushed talented Croatian Petra Martic 6-1, 6-1 in just 51 minutes to reach the second round.

“I think probably today I carried on from exactly how I was feeling last year,” said Stosur, who upset Serena Williams in last year’s final. “Hopefully that’s a good omen. As far as first rounds go, I was very happy with today. Last year I did feel that comfort out there and nothing bothered me; today was along the same lines.”

The 28-year-old Stosur lost in the first round at this year’s Australian Open and London Olympics, while she was beaten in round two at Wimbledon.

Expectations and pressure have got the better of her at times but she looked perfectly at ease against Martic, winning the first 19 points of the match before double-faulting to allow the Croatian her first point.

“The match had been going pretty quick and obviously in my favour,” said Stosur. “ did pop into my head for a split second but then I hit the double fault and it was erased and I was quickly on with the next point.”

The seventh seed hit 10 aces and felt comfortable being back on hard courts.

“For sure, at the Aussie Open I did freeze and it did kind of handcuff me. Since then I haven’t fallen into that trap again, so that’s a positive sign. It’s good to be back in New York.”