SMOOTH MOVER MURRAY STEPS UP
After all the earnestness of the past week, anxiously wondering if Andy Murray would be fit for Wimbledon, it was refreshing to see some light entertainment when Centre Court opened for business.
Alexander Bublik proved a delightful, somewhat unorthodox turn. And with him out of the way, Murray will now have to prepare for another in the form of the dreadlocked German Dustin Brown.
the route into the second week will be a scenic one for those following the 30-year-old Scot and the next stage should be free from worry about whether the defending champion’s body can take the strain.
those concerns dissolved like a spoonful of liver salts once he had made a sprint to the net to reach the first dropshot from Bublik, on only the second point of the match. Less than an hour and three- quarters of play later, Murray was through 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
the world No 134 was not, in truth, too severe a test. He has a wide array of shots at his disposal but seems unsure when to use them. At times he brought to mind eric Morecambe’s immortal piano sketch with Andre Previn: ‘I’m playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.’ Brown mixes in even more dinks and slices than Bublik and his grass- court prowess was enough to see off the tough Portuguese No 1 Joao Sousa in four sets yesterday.
But this was not too much of a surprise as, most famously, two years ago Brown beat rafael Nadal at the same, second-round stage as he now faces Murray. At least the Scot should be well prepared to spend plenty of time up around the net, as Bublik and Brown are not dissimilar in style. they are both crowdpleasers, too, although Brown actually has a more serious temperament than the talkative Kazakh. rather unusually, Bublik engaged in conversation with world No 1 Murray while the pair were off for the first rain delay. Murray said: ‘ We were waiting to go out at the beginning of the third set. ‘When I spoke to him at Indian Wells earlier this year I asked him how his match had gone. He said he had served, like, 20 double faults and asked if I had any advice for him.
‘Just before we went back on he said, “thanks for the advice about not serving 20 doubles faults, I think I’m on about 10 right now”. I said “Well, there’s still time to get to 20”. It was just funny, it’s rare that you speak to someone during a match.’
By that point, Murray could be reasonably confident he had the win wrapped up — and without the physical discomfort which seemed to be evident during last week at his sometimes tortured practice sessions.
It turns out that Ivan Lendl’s bullish comments last thursday — in which he said he had no worries at all about Murray’s fitness — were the most accurate gauge of his player’s true state.
But then Lendl knows what it is like in the week before a Grand Slam when you are a contender and how tension in the mind can aggravate niggling injuries.
the situation was also complicated by the fact that Murray always has a slightly strange gait, which means his walk can look a bit laboured at the best of times.
the Scot claimed that he was unaware of this: ‘I’ve always done it and everyone is sort of saying that I’m walking that way because of my hip, but I have no idea. I’m not in a lot of pain when I’m walking, that’s for sure.
‘Whether it’s something that just happened these last couple of weeks subconsciously I have no idea. But I’m not hurting between points.’
Certainly Bublik could not see anything wrong with his opponent.
‘He was playing good, he was running down everything at the net. He was very fast,’ said the Kazakh. ‘I had a dive volley, the first time I’ve ever done it and he reached it. I was like, “Can you please lose one point?”.’
Bublik had come out wearing large white headphones, waving enthusiastically to the crowd and got his chopped service returns going so well early on that he had two break points in the first game.
But once you knew Murray could move properly it was unlikely to prove too tough a contest, especially with so many double faults coming from one end. Murray looked sharp and his one wobble came just before the rain interruptions, when he went 0-40 down serving for the second set.
All in all, it could hardly have been a more satisfactory beginning — or a better warm-up for the flamboyant Brown.
‘I expect him to be aggressive, he’ll go for it. He plays a lot of dropshots, plays slice,’ said Murray of his next opponent.
‘Sometimes he hits two first serves and goes for a huge second one. It’s not easy against players like that.
‘He’s a really good athlete and good personality and always a fun guy to watch.’