MELBOURNE – Melbourne Park’s first glimpse of Andy Murray was a brief one yesterday as the pre-tournament favourite for the Australian Open zipped through to round two in double-quick time when his opponent retired injured.
Murray had been leading Andrei Pavel 6-2 3-1 when the Romanian quit after 45 minutes with a back injury that kept him out of the sport for most of last year.
‘I guess if you want to do well in the tournament, it’s good to conserve some energy hopefully that was a good thing,’ fourth seed Murray said, weighing the pros and cons of a quick outing.
Serena Williams did not waste too much time either, cantering through with a 6-3 6-2 win over China’s Yuan Meng. The American second seed is seeking a fourth Australian title after winning here in 2003, 2005 and 2007.
‘It was a little hot for me today,’ she smiled, sipping a drink. ‘It was a case of taking my time, not giving 1 000 per cent, you know?
‘I was getting super thirsty out there – at one stage I had to stop and have a drink of water,’ she laughed.
‘It was definitely extreme conditions,’ she added, stifling a sniffle. ‘I do have a little bit of a head cold… I hope that goes away.’
* Last year’s runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga overcame a patchy first set to thrash Argentine Juan Monaco 6-4 6-4 6-0 and advance yesterday.
Tsonga was broken once in the first set by the world number 49, though Monaco was broken twice himself and saved one other opportunity before the Frenchman won the set in 40 minutes.
The second set followed a similar pattern before world number seven Tsonga ran away with the third set.
Tsonga converted all three of his break opportunities in the final set and sealed the match when he served to love to set up a second round clash with either Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic or Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn.
SCORCHING HEAT
World number four Elena Dementieva survived the scorching heat to see off Kristina Barrois. Unbeaten so far this year after picking up titles in Auckland and Sydney, Dementieva beat the German 7-6 2-6 6-1.
‘It was a very tough match, especially because of the weather conditions today. And also it was not easy for me to come here after playing so many matches in a row,’ the blonde Russian said.
‘I’m sure I wouldn’t have minded one or two extra days before. But those are kind of days you have to survive. I’m just very glad I was able to do it.’
She will next meet the winner of the match between Russia’s Vera Dushevina and Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic.
Polish ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska was an early casualty, however, falling 7-6 4-6 6-1 to Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko.
Australian former world number one Lleyton Hewitt was due to do battle with 13th seed Fernando Gonzalez later on Tuesday and Serena’s sister Venus was to play Angelique Kerber.
Spanish top seed Rafael Nadal was due to open his campaign later yesterday against Christophe Rochus under floodlights. – Nampa-Reuters
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