Murray beats Thiem, Sinner saves three match points against Paul

In the marquee matchup of the Mutua Madrid Open first round, Andy Murray did not have too much trouble getting past Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-4 on Monday night.

Although it was a huge showdown on paper between two Grand Slam champions, it was not exactly a match featuring two Madrid title contenders. After all, neither injury-plagued player is in peak form these days. Murray is obviously well past his prime physically, while Thiem just missed nine months because of a wrist injury sustained during last summer’s grass-court swing.

With far more matches under his belt in recent months, Murray had the upper hand from start to finish on Monday. The former world No. 1 did not drop serve a single time–saving three break points in the second–and broke Thiem once in each set.

Given his own injury issues, Murray can empathize better than perhaps anyone with Thiem’s current plight.

“It’s extremely difficult,” Murray said. “He obviously had the injury initially and has also had some setbacks along the way. Mentally, it will take time to feel confident, totally accelerating on the ball. I had a wrist injury when I was 20 years old and it was very difficult. It took me time before I started to feel comfortable on the forehand side again.

“He uses his wrist a lot when he plays. He plays with heavy topspin. It’s obviously going to take him time, but he can still hit the ball great. He’s serving well, moving well. It’s just going to take time.”

Jannik Sinner advanced in much tougher fashion on Monday, outlasting Tommy Paul 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 6-3 after two hours and 59 minutes. Paul had three match points in the second set–two on his own serve at 5-3 and one with Sinner serving at 5-6–but the American could not convert.

It will be Murray vs. Shapovalov and Sinner vs. Alex de Minaur in the second round. Shapovalov beat lucky loser Ugo Humbert on Monday, while de Minaur defeated Pedro Martinez.