The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Murray safely through in Madrid, – but room for improvement
Room for improvement but Scot safely through
World No 1 Andy Murray moved into the third round of the Madrid Open as he saw off a spirited challenge from Romanian Marius Copil.
The Scot, who is continuing his return from an elbow injury after reaching the semi-finals in Barcelona, eventually forced a late break in a tense opening set before his superior power came through against the 26-year-old Romanian, who will climb into the top 100 next week.
Copil had initially put up some strong resistance, having saved two break point chances on his opening service game of what developed into a tight first set.
With both players holding, Murray went ahead at 5-4, which put more pressure on the Romanian as he served to stay in the set.
Murray did not let his chance slip, forcing Copil into a long return from the corner before another fine passing shot brought up a set point. Copil put a return into the net to lose the first set in 47 minutes.
Copil continued to find his range, holding a testing fourth game having squandered a 40-love lead to level at 2-2 on serve.
Murray, though, slowly upped the tempo, forcing another deuce on Copil’s next service game that saw a double fault followed by a break chance, which this time the top seed claimed when his opponent’s backhand was long.
The British No 1, set to also play in Rome ahead of the French Open, soon moved 5-2 up with a straightforward hold which left Copil serving to save the match. However, Murray, who will turn 30 next week, was forced to wait until the next game after another brave response from the world No 104.
Murray, though, made no mistake on his serve, forcing Copil into errors to complete his straight-sets win in one hour and 24 minutes after another long return by the Romanian.
Murray was happy enough with his work-out, but believes there is still room for improvement.
“When I started to control the points more towards the end of the first set and second set, I was hitting the ball pretty clean, creating a few chances. I didn’t give him any opportunities. It was good for the first match,” Murray said on the ATP Tour website.
“I still think there’s a way to go. I don’t think I’m playing perfectly just now.
“I think there’s just things I can definitely do better, but the most positive thing about tonight was that I feel like I can serve a little bit better than I did today.”
Murray will next play either Croatian Borna Coric or French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who knocked out No 13 seed Lucas Pouille with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 win.
Coric saw off Germany’s Mischa Zverev 6-3 7-6 (7-5) while Belgian ninth seed David Goffin beat Germany’s Florian Mayer 7-6 (7-3) 6-0.
In the first round, Ivo Karlovic set up a match against No 12 seed Grigor Dimitrov when the Croatian came through 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (9-11) 7-6 (9-7) against Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut in a match which lasted more than three hours.
Australian Bernard Tomic is out after losing 7-5 4-6 6-2 against Ryan Harrison of the United States, while Argentina’s Diego Sebastian Schwartzman beat Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1 6-3.
Frenchman Benoit Paire secured a second-round date with world No 3 Stan Wawrinka after beating Pablo Carreno-Busta of Spain 6-3 6-4.
Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller defeated Tommy Haas of Germany 6-4 7-6 (9-7) and will next play Canadian fifth seed Milos Raonic.
Spaniard Nicolas Almagro beat compatriot Tommy Robredo 6-3 3-6 6-1 and German Alexander Zverev saw off Spain’s Fernando Verdasco 7-5 6-3.