Murray relieved after comfortable win

Andy Murray said he was grateful for a quick win as he cruised through to the third round at Wimbledon with a convincing straight sets defeat of Blaz Rola.

The defending champion was too strong for his Slovenian opponent, dismissing him in imperious fashion with a 6-1 6-1 6-0 victory.

"I played well today, but this is the first year he's played on grass," Murray said. "He's just come out of college and broken into the top 100, so it was tough for him today. But he'll keep improving because he's got a good game.

"I just had to concentrate on my side of the net today. I took care of my serve pretty well for the majority of the match and thought I played well."

Murray admitted he was relieved to be able to complete the win in just 84 minutes after enduring several marathon matches at last month's French Open.

"I feel like [expending energy] cost me a bit at the French Open," Murray said. "Not necessarily that I would have beaten Rafa in the semis even if I had felt perfect, but I played a lot of long matches there.

"If you can finish matches as quickly as possible, it definitely helps in the long run."

Forced out to a sun-drenched No.1 Court after his first round victory over David Goffin on Centre, Murray wasted little time in dismantling Rola, breaking the World No. 92 in the opening game.

Rola, who said his motivation was "off the charts" ahead of the second-round clash, threatened to unleash a big first serve against the British No.1, but Murray looked far more at home in front of the SW19 crowd.

After flying through the first set in just 28 minutes, Murray survived the minor distraction of losing a ball from his pocket mid-rally in first game of the second set to make another early break of the Rola serve.

Murray went on drop just one game in the second set, although he repeatedly chastised himself for even the smallest of unforced errors.

Playing in just his third senior tournament on grass, former American college champion Rola had little answer to the pace and accuracy of Murray's serve and the defeat is the latest in a poor run of results against British opponents this year.

Rola was knocked out of both French Open qualifying and the first round at Queen's by Murray's Davis Cup team-mate James Ward, who before the match admitted to giving Murray's hitting partner Dani Vallverdu tips on how to deal with the left-hander.

Whatever advice Ward gave certainly appeared to work as Murray again set about breaking his opponent in the first game of the third set. To his credit, Rola survived two break points, but Murray completed the job at the third attempt before breaking Rola again in the fifth game to take the third set 6-0.

Murray will meet Roberto Bautista Agut in the third round on Friday after the No.27 seed defeated Jan Hernych 7-5 4-6 6-2 6-2.

source: http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/story/318839.html

Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray falter on bad day for big stars

(CNN) -- Rafael Nadal, the man who stood on top of the tennis world after winning his ninth French Open title last weekend, was brought back to earth with a bump Thursday.

The world No.1, so dominant on the clay at Roland Garros, was beaten in the first round of the ATP grass-court event in Halle, Germany, by a player ranked 84 places below him.

German Dustin Brown required less than an hour to win 6-4 6-1 on the grass to send Nadal crashing out of the tournament.

The Spaniard, playing his first match on grass since he was stunned in the opening game of last year's Wimbledon, appeared to struggle with the transition.

At Wimbledon 12 months ago, Nadal was beaten by Czech Lukas Rosol who was ranked 100 at the time in a five-set thriller.

And any hopes he would be given the chance to warmup for a return to SW19 were given short shrift by home favorite Brown.

Brown had only ever beaten one top-10 player, John Isner, and this result ranks as his best yet.

Nadal wasn't the only star to falter Thursday -- Andy Murray, who is set to start the defense of his Wimbledon title later this month, was beaten at Queen's Club in London.

Murray was beaten by veteran Czech Radek Stepanek 7-6 6-2 in his second match since appointing former women's No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo as his new coach.

The 27-year-old, who won the Queens title in 2009, 2011 and 2013, had won his past 19 matches on grass.

"I have only got myself to blame that I lost the first set," the Scot told the ATP website.

"I don't know how many set points I had, but quite a lot of them were on my serve.

"On this surface especially you shouldn't really be losing sets like that. For me, that's what's disappointing really about the match. Then, unfortunately, got broken in the first game of the second set. I couldn't quite get it back."

The 35-year-old Stepanek's reward is a quarterfinal clash with South African Kevin Anderson.

Meanwhile, seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer survived a scare in Halle before booking his place in the quarterfinals with a 6-7 6-4 6-2 win over Joao Sousa.

The Swiss ace, who has won this tournament on six occasions, will face Taiwan's Yen-Hsun Lu for a place in the semifinals.

"It was slightly frustrating at times clearly, but nevertheless I served well and kept on doing my thing," said fourth-ranked Federer, who lost in the last 16 at Roland Garros.

"It was important to stay calm and actually I think it gives me more confidence winning this way.

"I had to stay calm, fight through the match and find a way and then the last set and a half were much better. So, I'm actually pretty happy now."

source: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/12/sport/tennis/rafael-nadal-andy-murray-tennis/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Andy Murray serves up a sharp new look for new tennis coach Amelie Mauresmo

 Andy Murray’s new French coach Amelie Mauresmo appears to be giving him tips on personal grooming as well as sharpening up his game on the tennis court.

On Tuesday, the British No. 1 looked more surfer than tennis star as he practiced his volleys looking unshaven with an unruly mop of curly hair during training at Queen’s Club.

But the following day, Murray had undergone a dramatic image transformation for his new coach, as he appeared on court clean shaven with a tidy new haircut.

Whether or not it was the presence of a female coach, Murray’s girlfriend Kim Sears kept a close eye on the Scotsman as he won his first match of the grass court season against Paul Henri-Mathieu.

The Olympic and Wimbledon champion disclosed his girlfriend does not attend many of his tournaments, as he claims being away from one another was "good" for their relationship. 

read more: www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/andymurray/10893032/Andy-Murray-serves-up-a-sharp-new-look-for-new-tennis-coach-Amelie-Mauresmo.html

Nadal Battles Past Murray In Rome Reunion

Andy Murray served up a bagel set the last time he faced Rafael Nadal, three years ago in the Tokyo final.

On Friday, Murray picked up where he left off when the pair renewed their rivalry in the quarter-finals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, but was unable to hold off the seven-time Rome champion in the end. The World No. 1 battled back to win 1-6, 6-3, 7-5, setting a semi-final meeting with 12th seed Grigor Dimitrov.

The seventh-seeded Murray, who had taken just one set off of Nadal in their previous four clay-court meetings, raced out to a 5-0 lead as he converted his two break point chances and saved the three faced. Murray served out the first set after 38 minutes, after Nadal held to avoid his first bagel set since playing Roger Federer at the 2011 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Nadal saved a break point to open the second set, and finally converted on his fifth opportunity against Murray to take a 2-0 lead - the only break of the 52-minute set. Nadal won 100 per cent of his second serve points and all 12 of his points at the net.  

After exchanging breaks to start the third set, Murray broke to go up 4-2 after Nadal had fought back to deuce from triple break point down. The Mallorcan immediately recovered his serve and claimed the decisive break to love, 6-5. He pulled ahead 14-5 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

Nadal had reached the quarter-finals with two battling victories. He prevailed against Gilles Simon in three hours and 19 minutes - the longest best-of-three-set match this season - and came from a set and a break down to defeat Mikhail Youzhny.

This is the first time since 2005 Rome that Nadal has won three straight decisive-set matches on clay in the same tournament. 

The Spaniard had rebounded from quarter-final exits in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona to win the Mutua Madrid Open title, needing to rally from down against Kei Nishikori in the final.

"He finished the match incredibly well," said Murray. "The last three games he was physically a little bit stronger than me at the end. Apart from that it was a good match."

source: http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2014/05/20/Rome-Friday-Nadal-Murray.aspx

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