Murray Downs Rosol At The US Open

Andy Murray gave Lukas Rosol no room to breathe in a comprehensive 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 first-round victory at the US Open on Tuesday. The Czech was a tricky opening draw for the No. 2 seed, having overpowered Rafael Nadal in the second round at Wimbledon in 2012. However, Murray gave Rosol nothing to work with and prevailed in under two hours.

“He had a few chances the first couple of service games and came out going for his shots,” Murray said. “I got through that tricky period right at the start when he’s hitting the ball really well and kind of adjusted to the conditions. The arena is a lot louder than most places where we play, so you don’t hear the ball as much. There’s a slightly different sound in there. Once I got through that, I settled down and played a really good match.”

Murray, dressed in an intimidating all-black outfit, set the tone for the match by breaking Rosol after a long sixth game in the first set. The Czech was attempting to overturn a 0-2 deficit in his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Murray and looked to be the first to inject pace and change directions in baseline rallies. Murray used Rosol’s aggressiveness against him, restricting the 31 year old to 27 winners and forcing him to commit 45 unforced errors. Murray finished with the same number of winners, but made 28 fewer unforced errors.

Outmatched from the back of the court, Rosol also struggled on serve. He struck three aces and won only 32 per cent of second-serve points (11/34), while Murray fired 11 aces and won two-thirds of points on his second delivery (19/29). Murray did not face a break point in the match.

“Because of the roof, there’s literally no wind at all. It almost has a feel of playing indoors because there’s no wind. It’s perfect conditions to play in really,” Murray said. “I served very well tonight. I used good variation on the second serve. The first serve was very good. That’s something that I worked on a lot. When I serve well, the rest of my game tends to follow.”

The 2016 Wimbledon champion has reached seven consecutive tour-level finals dating back to April. He is now 51-7 on the year (21-4 on hard courts). Murray is 1,215 points behind Novak Djokovic in the Emirates ATP Race To London, and could take over top spot if he wins the tournament and if Djokovic fails to reach the final.

Next up for the 2012 US Open champion will be Spain’s Marcel Granollers, who beat Juan Monaco 7-6(5), 7-6(2), 6-4. Murray holds a commanding 6-1 lead in the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry. His only loss to Granollers came when he retired with the match tied one set-all in Rome three years ago. The Brit has never lost a set on hard court to the 30 year old from Barcelona.