Murray conquers Tomic at Miami Masters
MIAMI, Florida (AFP) — Britain’s second-seeded Andy Murray mastered the tricky conditions and made short work of Australian Bernard Tomic yesterday to reach the third round of the Miami ATP Masters and WTA tournament.
Tomic managed to win only 10 points in the final set of a 56-minute match dominated by the reigning Olympic and US Open champion, who has a training base in Miami.
“It’s very tough conditions,” Murray said of his determination to get off to a quick start in his first match after enjoying a first-round bye.
World number Murray wasn’t sure that Tomic deserved the jeers he heard from fans as he faded in the second set.
“You know, it is tough when you’re going behind and making quite a lot of mistakes,” Murray said. “I have done it before when my head has gone down and you still want to win, but it doesn’t always appear that way.”
Murray, who lost to top-ranked Novak Djokovic in last year’s final, next faces Grigor Dimitrov, who won the first set against Simone Bolelli with the second set level at 1-1 when the Italian retired.
Murray, the 2009 Miami champion, beat the rising Bulgarian star to retain his title in Brisbane in January.
The Scot remained perfect against Tomic, the youngest player in the ATP top 100 at age 20, after having won their only prior meeting 6-3, 6-2 last year in a semi-final at Brisbane.
Murray broke in the fifth game and then held serve for a 4-2 lead, taking full advantage of 14 unforced errors in the first six games by Tomic.
Tomic netted a backhand to hand Murray a second break, and the first set, in the ninth game of the match.
Murray broke Tomic twice in the second set as well, and closed it out with his eighth ace.
In other men’s matches, French sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Serbia’s Viktor Troicki 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 to reach the third round.
Tsonga seized a 5-1 lead in the tie-breaker but the Serb scored the next five points to earn his second set point. Tsonga denied him with an ace and two points later, Troicki netted a drop volley to hand the Frenchman the first set.
