Murray into third round in New York
by setantasports.com staff, 28 August 2008
Andy Murray was in erratic form as he made his way into the third round of The US Open with victory over France’s Michael Llodra on Thursday.
The British number one defeated the French player 6-4 1-6 7-5 7-6 (9-7) after being completely outplayed in the second set but recovering to come out on top of two more competitive sets.
Murray started okay, breaking Llodra in the first set to set himself on course to claim it, but in the set that followed the Frenchman pounced on a number of weak Murray serves. He broke the Scot twice and won the set.
In the third, Murray pounced as Llodra stuttered and retook his lead before the fourth in which both players hit some fine shots and some wayward ones as they broke each other. Murray let a match point go at 6-5 and as the set went into a tie-break, Murray gave Llodra a chance after a double-fault.
The Frenchman was unable to take his opportunity either, however, and as he netted a backhand to see the set levelled before another Llodra mistake gave Murray another match point and this time he took it.
Next up for Murray is Germany’s Jurgen Melzer, who is through after obliterating Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic 6-0 6-2 6-2.
Elsewhere at Flushing Meadows on Thursday, number four seed David Ferrer was forced to overcome a poor start as he battled back to advance at the expense of German Andreas Beck. The Spaniard emerged the 4-6 7-5 6-3 7-6 (7-5) of what was a slog of a match.
Ferrer will next face Japanese youngster Kei Nishikori, into the third round after the retirement of second round opponent Roko Karanusic of Croatia, a leg injury ending his involvement in the competition.
Seventh seed David Nalbandian of Argentina had no problems at all in beating Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-2 6-4 6-2, while James Blake of America also progressed after his opponent, Belgian Steve Darcis, retired.
And number 10 seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland went through after oustimg South African Wayne Odesnik 6-4 7-6 (7-6) 6-2.
