Murray keeps momentum up with win over Brown
Andy Murray continued to put memories of his worrying build-up to his title defence at Wimbledon behind him as he cruised through to the third round of the men’s singles yesterday.
The Briton had struggled with form and then an injury issue with his hip, which limited his preparations, but none of that was evident as he proved too much for German Dustin Brown.
The world No 1 prevailed 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 with a superb display in which he broke serve five times and did not face a break point on his own service in a match that lasted only 96 minutes.
Murray, aiming to win Wimbledon for a third time followng his successes in 2013 and last year, will go up against No 28 seed Fabio Fognini for a place in the last 16 tomorrow.
Elsewhere on court yesterday, ninth seed Kei Nishikori dug deep to keep his Wimbledon hopes alive as he ground out a 6-4, 6-7, 6-1, 7-6 win over Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Despite reaching at least the quarter-finals of the other three grand slam events, Nishikori has never been beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon.
He next faces Spanish 18th seed Roberto Bautista Agut who ousted German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk.
France’s Jo- Wilfried Tsonga, the 12th seed, made short work of Italian qualifier Simone Bolelli, winning in straight sets.
In the women’s draw, Johanna Konta edged a marathon three-set battle with Donna Vekic to reach the third round for the first time at Wimbledon.
Konta saved two break points at the end of a tense final set that lasted an hour and 19 minutes, and the British No 1 emerged a 7-6, 4-6, 10-8 victor to progress.
Konta told the BBC: “It hasn’t quite sunk in. It’s just a nice feeling not to keep going out there. We were out there a long time and both of us battled incredibly hard.
“Whoever was going to draw the short straw was going to be hurting. I feel very fortunate to come through that.”
After Heather Watson’s earlier win over Anastasija Sevastova, Konta’s victory also means Britain have two women into the third round of the singles here for the first time since 1986 when Jo Durie and Anne Hobbs were the players who made it through.