Two-time champion Andy Murray returned to the clay with ease on Tuesday, gaining a routine 6-4, 6-3 win against Romanian qualifier Marius Copil on the Manolo Santana Centre Court at the Mutua Madrid Open. The top-seeded Murray improved to 11-0 in his opening matches in the Spanish capital, dating back to his debut in 2006.

The Scot will meet #NextGenATP Croatian Borna Coric or French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

“When I started to control the points more towards the end of the first set and second set, I was hitting the ball pretty clean, creating a few chances. I didn’t give him any opportunities,” Murray said. “It was good for the first match.”

Murray is looking to kick-start his 2017 campaign in Madrid, as he did a year ago. Last year, he arrived in the Spanish metropolis with a 13-4 record and no titles. But Murray went on to reach the Madrid final (l. to Djojkovic) and finish the season on a 65-5 run and with an ATP World Tour-best nine titles.

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This season, Murray is now 16-5 and has one title to his name, his 45^th tour-level crown at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in February. But the World No. 1 hasn’t reached another final since his Dubai triumph (d. Verdasco).

Against Copil, Murray was as solid as ever. He broke in the 10^th game to take the opening set when Copil netted a backhand slice. Murray earned his second break to lead 4-2 in the second set and served out the match to advance in 84 minutes.

“I still think there’s a ways to go. I don’t think I’m playing perfectly just now. I think there’s just things I can definitely do better. But the most positive thing about tonight was that I feel like I can serve a little bit better than I did today,” said Murray, who faced no break points.

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American Ryan Harrison earned his first win against Aussie Bernard Tomic 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 to set-up a second-round meeting against 16^th seed Nick Kyrgios. Harrison had been 0-2 against Tomic in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

The 25-year-old Harrison, who reached the Estoril quarter-finals last week (l. to Ferrer), hit 15 aces and broke four times to move on in one hour and 50 minutes.

Former Top 50 player Bernard Mitton of South Africa passed away last Friday. He was 62.

The 6’2” right-hander, who was born in Vryburg, South Africa, but had been living in Newport Beach, California, won two ATP World Tour singles titles and nine doubles crowns during his career, which started in 1973, only five years after the beginning of the Open Era (April 1968), and ended in 1984.

Mitton’s final tour-level match was against then-World No. 5 Jimmy Arias of the U.S. at 1984 Wimbledon. South Africa native and former World No. 7 Johan Kriek said Mitton led a generation of South African players.

“Bernie was a very talented, smart and funny guy. He was the elder statesman of South African tennis, travelling to Europe to progress his career. When Ian Cunningham, a top coach in Johannesburg and Pretoria, moved from South Africa to Austria, we all followed at different stages and trained together. Bernie was first there in 1974 and I arrived in 1978, a young buck, who learned a lot from Bernie. As a guy from South Africa who was a tennis pro, I thought maybe I could do that,” Kriek said.

Mitton won his first title on the grass at Newport in 1978 and at San Jose a year later. He’d reach three more finals in the late ’70s and early ’80s in San Jose, Adelaide and Johannesburg. Mitton, who reached No. 48 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, also recorded wins against all-time greats John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, John Newcombe and Arthur Ashe.

Mitton even helped Ashe beat Connors during the 1975 Wimbledon final. Mitton had prevailed against Connors 7-6, 6-1 in the semi-finals of a small pre-Wimbledon grass-court tournament in Chichester in June 1975. The South African slow-balled Connors in the way that Ashe would against Connors in the 1975 Wimbledon final weeks later. Ashe, always one to do his research, sought out Mitton before the Wimbledon final for help.

Kriek said of Mitton: “He was always a funny guy and he didn’t take life too seriously. He beat John Newcombe at Wimbledon in 1976 and was a set and a break up against Bjorn Borg at the US Open [in 1978]… He was mentally strong and had one of the fastest swinging forehands with a wooden racquet.”

In doubles, Mitton teamed with six different players, including Tim Gullikson, Butch Walts and Raymond Moore, to win his nine titles.

After his playing career finished, Mitton later coached in Newport Beach, Rancho San Clemente and Irvine, California.

“He helped so many tennis players from South Africa and was a great coach in California for many years,” Kriek said. “He will be greatly missed.”

View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following match-ups Tuesday at the Mutua Madrid Open & vote for who you think will win! 
A Zverev v Verdasco | M Zverev v Coric | Robredo v Almagro

View Tuesday schedule, featuring top seed Andy Murray against Marius Copil, and check back later for preview notes.

In an all-French battle, Gilles Simon saved two match points to win a back-and-forth contest against Gael Monfils 0-6, 6-0, 7-6(0) on Monday at the Mutua Madrid Open. Simon erased the match points while serving at 2-5 in the third set.

The 32-year-old Simon will next meet Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, who defeated #NextGenATP American qualifier Ernesto Escobedo 6-4, 6-4 in 74 minutes. Simon and Lopez have split their previous four FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings, but this will be their first encounter on clay.

Lopez, 35, is the only player to have appeared in all 16 editions of his hometown ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament and is a four-time quarter-finalist in Madrid.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to work for it but ultimately prevailed in a marathon first-round match against Russian qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-5 that lasted two hours and 50 minutes. Tsonga saved all six break points and converted his only break point against Kuznetsov in the third set.

The 10th-seeded Frenchman improved to 3-0 against Kuznetsov in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. The win is also Tsonga’s first since 26 February, when he captured the Marseille crown, and his first since he welcomed his son Shugar on 18 March.

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The 32 year old will meet Spaniard David Ferrer in the second round. Ferrer came back from a set and 1-3 down to prevail against Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-4 in two hours and 31 minutes. The 35-year-old Ferrer is now one match win away from celebrating his 700^th match win.

“I’m very proud of my career. But that figure is a very big figure. It’s something quite big to achieve, very difficult to achieve for a tennis player,” Ferrer said. “Fortunately, I’ve been lucky. I have had a long career. I still have a lot of time ahead of me. I’ve won a lot of matches and that makes me very happy. I’ve been very happy playing tennis.”