Nagging hip injury doesn’t slow Murray
LONDON >> Neither a nagging injury to his left hip nor a brief rain delay seemed to pose any challenge to Andy Murray.
The top-seeded Murray opened defense of his Wimbledon title with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 win over Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan on Monday in the opening round.
Murray, whose only competitive grass-court appearance was a firstround loss at Queen’s last month, showed no effects from an injury that caused him to call off two exhibition matches last week. Although the 134th-ranked Bublik’s eccentric style of play, built on drop shots and slices, tested Murray’s mobility, he countered with his defensive game and took advantage of his opponent’s errors.
The 20-year-old Bublik finished with 35 unforced errors to Murray’s 10 and had 12 double-faults.
“My hip felt good,” Murray said. “It’s a little bit sore, but I was moving really good on the court today. You know, that’s the most important thing. If you’re in a little bit of pain, but you can still run as you normally do, that doesn’t affect how you play. It’s when it’s affecting your movement and some of the shots that you play when it becomes a problem. Today, you know, certainly wasn’t the case at all.”
The victory included a 33-minute rain delay. Murray was leading Bublik by two sets and entering the third game of the third set when play was suspended.
Even Bublik, a lucky loser in qualifying who was playing in his seventh tour-level match, seemed resigned to his fate. He joked to Murray during the delay that they were going to stand around for an hour only to play 15 more minutes.
“He’s physically incredible,” Bublik said. “If he was struggling with injury and he’s running like this, imagine how he’s going to play when he has no problem.”
Murray was ready for Bublik’s unorthodox style from the start. He answered his opponent’s drop shot with one of his own to pick up a point in the first game of the first set. And later, he won the first game of the second set by attacking the net with a sharp forehand volley.
He even managed to return Bublik’s dive volley in the seventh game of the third set, drilling it back to force break point, which he also won, as his opponent struggled to get back to his feet.
Up next for Murray is Dustin Brown, a German who came from behind to defeat Joao Sousa in four sets and has a similar, yet more structured, game as Bublik.
That should be fine for Murray, who handled the first test of the hip well enough.
“I moved well,” Murray said. “So yeah, for a first match, considering how I was feeling five, six days ago, it was really positive.”
No. 3-ranked Stan Wawrinka, a three-time major champion and the runnerup at the French Open just three weeks ago, wasn’t so fortunate.
Dealing with a bothersome left knee, Wawrinka bowed out 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to Daniil Medvedev, a 21-year-old Russian ranked 49th who had never won so much as one Grand Slam match in his career.
“For sure, I wasn’t feeling the way I wanted to feel,” Wawrinka said. “Apparently, grass is not the best surface for my knee.”
Wawrinka has won each of the other majors once apiece but Wimbledon has given him fits over the years. He has yet to get past the quarterfinals and this was his sixth exit in the first round.
Another seeded man hobbled by an injury departed when No. 20 Nick Kyrgios, a talented if temperamental Australian, stopped playing because of a hip problem. He dropped the first two sets against Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France before calling it quits.
Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion who was injured in a knife attack at her home in December, beat Johanna Larsson of Sweden 6-3, 6-4 on Centre Court while Rafael Nadal defeated John Millman of Australia 6-1, 6-3, 6-2.
Second-seeded Simona Halep and No. 17 Madison Keys also won. Halep, who lost in the French Open final, beat Marina Erakovic of New Zealand 6-4, 6-1. Keys defeated Nao Hibino of Japan 6-4, 6-2.
Keys, who is righthanded, was playing for the first time since having a second surgery on her left wrist.
“It’s obviously not perfect,” Keys said. “I haven’t been able to do the repetitions that ideally I would have wanted to do, but it feels fine. Doesn’t hurt anymore. That’s really all I care about.”
Fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina and eighth-seeded Dominika Cibulkova also advanced.
Two-time semifinalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also reached the second round. The 12th-seeded Frenchman beat Cameron Norrie of Britain 6-3, 6-2, 6-2. Fifth-seeded Maric Cilic, ninth-seeded Kei Nishikori and 24th-seeded Sam Querrey also advanced.