TENNIS:ANDY MURRAY wants to assure those who care and those who doubt that he is not falling to pieces. He is up and running at the 2012 French Open after a minor and unwarranted scare about the most discussed back in Paris halfway through what was ultimately a stroll against Tatsuma Ito on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
The Scot sandwiched a hiccup in between two emphatic statements to dismiss the talented but outclassed Japanese player in a little more than an hour and a half, opening his tournament with a flourish as convincing as any of those of his rivals.
Around him in the draw, there were no earthquakes: the gifted Bernard Tomic is through without fuss, as is the Scot’s recent Rome conqueror, Richard Gasquet; the ever-difficult David Ferrer won handily, and the tournament favourite Rafael Nadal, probable gatekeeper to the final, was also untroubled on a balmy third day.
Murray said he is relishing a second-round test tomorrow against the Finn Jarkko Nieminen, who was gifted a retirement win against the Russian Igor Andreev after dropping the first set.
“He’s a lefty, got a lot of experience,” Murray said. “I will have to attack his serve.”
Of his own performance, Murray observed: “I just played one bad game on my serve and let him back in in the second set. Everything else was pretty good, just some niggles. I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’ve had back problems but I will push through it this week.”
While the campaign to ban the world “niggle” from all tennis quotes awaits a few more adherents in the press box, Murray looks to be managing a complaint that surfaced last December and which he hopes to banish next December. In the meantime, he is taking care of business.
In the course of beating Ito 6-1, 7-5, 6-0, the world number four unfurled some beautiful strokes under the unforgiving hot skies at the start to threaten a humiliating blitz of a player 65 players adrift of him in the rankings.
However, there was a blip (not an unfamiliar sight in Murray matches against lesser opponents) when Ito found inspiration from his illustrious opponent’s temporary power shut-down in the middle of the second set, breaking back with his own exhilarating forehand, known in Japan as his Dragon Shot (it is the translation of his surname).
But the sniff of an upset passed quickly and once Murray rediscovered his rhythm and focus, he eased through the third set to love in only 22 minutes.
Murray began the late-afternoon match as if it were a spar, dabbing daggers deep and wide, high and low, as Ito, a rising talent in his homeland, struggled with the grandest stage of his young career and the uncomfortable task of trying to fathom one of the finest strategists in tennis. He had beaten Radek Stepanek in Dusseldorf a week earlier, the best result of his career, but this is a slam. This was Murray.
On his way to winning a ridiculously easy first set, Murray was 3-0 up after 10 minutes. Ito murdered a smash at the net to hand the game to Murray to love and it was 5-0 after only a quarter of an hour. A bagel loomed; instead Murray got himself a “breadstick”, dropping a single point on his serve, and just the one game, scant relief for Ito.
There was no hint at the start of the second that trouble was on the way. Murray broke serve instantly and easily. Then, from a slumber, Ito roused.
He got it to 2-1 when a second serve kicked awkwardly into Murray’s ribs and within a couple of minutes he had three break points as Murray double-faulted, then dropped serve with an over-cooked backhand.
A backhand slice trapped Ito in nowhere land and Murray held for 3-3 but as he powered down his serve in search of consistency, Ito remained in top gear and, serving 30 miles an hour faster than his illustrious opponent, held to love with some withering ground strokes for a 4-3 lead.
Ito had three break points but Murray found a thundering ace, the fastest of the match at 215kph, and Ito duffed a backhand for 4-4.
The rest was regulation recovery tennis, as Murray gradually took the stuffing out of his now ragged opponent. His coach’s head hit the table in the players’ box and Ito was all but done after surrendering the second set.
All resistance was drained from him at the end, but he received the warmest of receptions, the sort of sound a loser either hates for its possibly patronising resonance or is comforted with as he might not pass this way again for a little while, so take a bow, Dragon man.
Guardian Service
