Murray made to fight in opening round
INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA: World number two Andy Murray was given a tough test but pushed his way past Marcel Granollers 6-4, 7-6(3) in his opening match at the BNP Paribas Open in California on Saturday.
Murray led Great Britain to a Davis Cup victory over Japan last week, but apart from that team event had not competed since his Australian Open final loss to Novak Djokovic on January 31.
Murray overcame a break in the first set, and then took the second in a tiebreak against his Spanish opponent.
Earlier, Canadian Milos Raonic took only 55 minutes to dispatch Inigo Cervantes.
Raonic, playing for the first time since a groin injury contributed to his heartbreaking five-set semi-final loss to Murray at the Australian Open, was delighted with his form.
“To come out, and really not know how things are going to go, find your rhythm well early on, do the fundamentals well, dictate the match, I’m very pleased with that,” Raonic told the Tennis Channel.
“When I look at the overall picture of my progress, development, I have to be very pleased. I’ve incorporated a lot of new things in my game. I’m getting more efficient coming forward at the net and I think I’m able to put more and more pressure on my opponents.”
In other second-round action, sixth seed Tomas Berdych cruised past Juan Martin del Potro 7-6(4) 6-2. Frenchman Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet both advanced.
On the women’ s side, Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber was upset by Denisa Allertova of the Czech Republic 7-5 7-5.
KYRGIOS DOCKED POINT
Australian Nick Kyrgios was involved in a fresh dispute after being accused of swearing.
At 2-2 in the second set of his second-round defeat by Spaniard Albert Ramos here, the umpire said Kyrgios had used foul lan- guage and docked the player a point. “You used the F word,” explained French official Damien Dumusois.
Kyrgi os pro tested and, after briefly taking a seat in the crowd, he approached the umpire. “I didn’t say anything,” he said. Dumusois replied: “Nick. You know we are strict on the F word...I have a report from an official. I trust him”. Ramos went on to win the match 7-6 (4), 7-5.