Murray Solves Purcell Riddle To Advance In Newport

Andy Murray won a battle of Wimbledon champions Wednesday at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open in Newport. The two-time singles titlist at SW19 worked hard to find a way past the slice-and-dice game of Max Purcell, who won the Wimbledon doubles title on Saturday alongside Matthew Ebden.

In a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory, Murray needed time to find a way through the unorthodox Purcell, who sliced nearly all of his ground strokes in the two-hour, 23-minute match. The Australian’s tactic frustrated his opponent early on the grass court, but after falling behind 1-5 in the opening set, Murray found a way to attack the lack of pace.

Playing in Newport for the first time since 2006, Murray moved to the brink of victory with a battling hold to make it 4-1 in the third set. He let out a roar when a big serve saved a break point, then celebrated again when an ace sealed the hold — one of his eight in the contest.

Murray appeared to tweak his inner thigh or groin as he slipped to the turf early in the final set, but managed to close out the match despite some discomfort in the final stages.

Despite the scoreline in the final two sets, Murray was made to work for each game. He finished with seven breaks on 15 chances, while saving seven of the 11 break points against him.

The second-seeded Murray advances to face Alexander Bublik in the third round, after the third seed defeated Jack Sock 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 earlier on Wednesday.

Fourth seed Maxime Cressy also advanced courtesy of a 6-3, 6-4 win in an all-American matchup against Mitchell Krueger. He will next face Steve Johnson, who advanced past seventh seed Jiri Vesely via walkover.