Murray Moves Closer To Second Gold Medal In Rio

  • Posted: Aug 10, 2016

Murray Moves Closer To Second Gold Medal In Rio

Aug092016

Brit remains on a roll at the Olympics, will next face Fognini

Andy Murray wasted little time advancing his quest for a second gold medal on Tuesday at the Rio Olympics. The top Brit, who took gold in London in 2012, used only 69 minutes to get past Argentine Juan Monaco 6-3, 6-1.

The 29 year old broke Monaco five times and benefited from the Tandil native’s 26 unforced errors. Murray also was effective with both of his serves. He actually won a higher percentage of points with his second offering, 78 per cent (14/16), compared to 70 per cent (16/23) with his first serve.

Murray will face Fabio Fognini in the third round. The Italian came back to beat 16th seed Benoit Paire of France 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5). Fognini, who lost in the first round in London in 2012, broke Paire at 5-4 in the second set to even the match. In the third set, Paire had a match point on Fognini’s serve at 5-4 but, after seven deuces, Fognini held. He’d eliminate Paire on his third match point to finish the 67-minute third set.

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Rafael Nadal remained unbeaten in Rio. The third seed overcame 42 unforced errors to beat Italian Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-3. Nadal will next play 15th seed Gilles Simon, who prevailed against Japan’s Yuichi Sugita 7-6(3), 6-2. Simon landed only 51 per cent of his first serves but won 62 per cent of his second serves. Nadal leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 7-1 and has taken their past five match-ups. Simon last beat the Spaniard in 2008 on the clay at the Mutua Madrid Open.

Nadal’s countryman David Ferrer was not as fortunate. The seventh seed fell to Russian Evgeny Donskoy 3-6, 7-6(1), 7-5 in two hours and 28 minutes. The 34 year old had two match points at 5-4 in the third set but Donskoy erased them both and later served out the set. In the third round, Donskoy will face American Steve Johnson, who beat Portugal’s Gastao Elias 6-3, 6-4.

Belgium’s David Goffin continued his best Olympics run with a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Israel’s Dudi Sela. Goffin, who lost in the first round in London, will meet 11th seed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay or Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci, who play on Tuesday evening.

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