Murray Quick Off The Blocks In Cincinnati

Andy Murray made quick work of Juan Monaco in the second round of the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday, winning 6-3, 6-2 to stretch his career-best winning streak to 19 matches. The top seed improved to 5-2 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Monaco and is now 47-6 on the year.

“It’s really humid here, quite different conditions to Rio,” said Murray, who is coming off a gold-medal performance at the Rio Olympics. “The court here is pretty fast. Rio was a lot slower than this. It took a bit of time to get into it, but I did all right.

“I did two short sessions yesterday and two short sessions today. I sometimes find that rather than doing one long session, if you’re going into new conditions, it’s a bit easier to do a couple of shorter sessions. I feel like I get my timing a bit quicker that way.”

Murray, who is top seed at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event for the first time, was at his efficient best on Center Court. The Brit only lost four points after landing a first serve (20/24) and was clinical in the forecourt (8 of 9 net points won). He finished with more winners (15-11) and fewer unforced errors (17-20) than his opponent.

Monaco was taking to the court for the second time on the day, as he finished off Ivo Karlovic 6-4, 6-4 in a rain-delayed first-round match hours before facing Murray. The Argentine was firing on all cylinders against the towering Croatian, winning 82 per cent of points on his own delivery and neutralizing Karlovic’s vaunted serve (2/5 on break points). However, he was unable to find solutions against Murray, dropping serve four times to succumb in 77 minutes.

Murray’s next opponent will be Kevin Anderson, who upended No. 13 seed Richard Gasquet 6-2, 6-4 in 79 minutes. The South African hit 17 aces to no double faults and broke the Frenchman four times to score his third win in eight FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings with Gasquet.

Yuichi Sugita was a two-time winner on Wednesday. During the day session, he downed #NextGen star Alexander Zverev 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 in their first-round encounter. At night, the speedy Japanese saw off Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 7-5 to book a place in the last 16.