Murray Through To Second Round of Red Letter Days Open
British number two Andy Murray is safely through to the second
round of the Red Letter Days Open after a comprehensive 6-4
6-3 victory over world number 31 Dmitri Tursunov. The young
Scot who was granted a wildcard into the event delighted a
packed centre court gallery and proved to be more than a match
for the Russian who is the tournament’s fifth seed.
Murray, who is making his singles debut at the Nottingham
event dealt well with the powerful Russian and every point
he won was greeted by cheers from the excitable crowd. After
one hour and 16 minutes Murray maintained his composure and
held serve to meet last year’s finalist Max Mirnyi in
tomorrow’s second round match scheduled to be the second
match on centre court.
Murray was pleased with his performance and commented; “I
thought I did the right thing today. I tried to be more aggressive
and win the match on my terms. I used my serve pretty well.”
Commenting on Max Mirnyi his second round opponent he said;
“It’s tough to play against a guy who serves and
volleys so well. He also likes to come into the net. It’s
going to be a tough match.”
Alex Bogdanovic, British number four stretched Andy Murray’s
second round opponent to three tight sets but was eventually
beaten by Mirnyi 6-4 6-7(4) 3-6. Commenting after the match
Alex said; “When you get a tie-break anything can happen.
I was hoping to take the second set tie break but unfortunately
it didn’t go my way. However I’m happy with the
way I’m playing and I’m looking forward to Wimbledon.”
Max Mirnyi commented: ”It’s always tough to play
against the Brits over here. Alex is a very talented player
and he caused me a lot of problems. It was fantastic to win
in the end.”
Jonas Bjorkman, who won the Nottingham event in1998 and 2002
began his campaign for a third title with a 2-6 6-1 6-3 victory
over Argentinean Agustin Calleri.
Jonas Bjorkman said; ”It was nice to get through. I’ve
been playing good tennis in practice but I had a terrible
start to this match and I had to change my tactics. Sometimes
you just have to do what you have to do to win a match. It’s
nice to come through.”
Bjorkman turned his attentions to tonight’s world cup
football match and commented; “You have not beaten us
for 25 years and the English always talk about winning the
World Cup but you haven’t done so since 1966. What can
I say, I’m a patriot.”
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