The Centre Court faithful got their money’s worth on Wednesday at Wimbledon.
It started with a 10-8 in the third set thriller (Johanna Konta over Donna Vekic) and both of the men’s matches were played to completion–a veritable triumph compared to the second-set retirements that Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic got from their opponents on Tuesday.
World No. 1 and defending champion Andy Murray picked up a second consecutive straight-set victory, beating Dustin Brown 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the third round. Murray cruised in one hour and 36 minutes and finished with an incredible ratio of 31 winners to five unforced errors.
“It was a good match from my end,” the top-seeded Scot commented. “I served well until really the last few games. I returned well. I didn’t make many mistakes. I hit a lot of good passing shots. So I was really happy with it, obviously.”
“Most of the guys you play, you can try to find a way where you know you can hurt them,” Brown explained. “If you do it, the whole match is a different situation. But today I had the feeling it made no difference what I did. If I stayed back, if I attacked, if I came in, if I chipped, if I hit the ball and came in. He pretty had much a good answer for everything. That made it difficult.”
Donald Young did his best to make things difficult for Nadal, crushing forehands–sometimes recklessly so–and getting to the net whenever possible. It worked to the tune of 11 games won, but the underdog American did not have quite enough to steal a set. Nadal withstood a late charge by Young to prevail 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 after two hours and 11 minutes.
Young’s 11 games were three more than anyone managed against the second-ranked Spaniard throughout the entire French Open. Nadal’s most competitive–or least lopsided–contest in Paris was a 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 second-round beatdown of Robin Haase.
Thirsting for more tennis, the Centre Court crowd was sent into a frenzy when Young broke serve in the 10th game of the third set to stay alive and reach 5-5. But that served as nothing more than a wakeup call for Nadal, who stormed through the next two games and thus sealed the deal while avoiding a fourth set that would have required a closed roof due to impending darkness.
“It was a good match again,” the 15-time Grand Slam champion assessed. “Almost all the time (I was) more or less under control. It’s true that I had the inconvenience with losing the serve serving for the match. That’s the only moment. For the rest of the things, I think I played a solid match. In general terms, I am happy. I played well.”
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Both Murray and Rafa likely to face sterner tests in round 3
Murray in 4
Nadal in 3
Both Murray and Rafa in three.
Well compared to Rafa in 2015, Murray certainly made things difficult for Brown today. Brown’s style of going for broke, hit or miss, mixing in plenty of net rushing and trick shots, on his good day could make things happened for him but when facing the big four on their good days, I don’t think he would have much success,
Well done to Murray, for not letting Brown had his way and finished him off in straight relatively easy sets. Murray has/had his own tricks up his sleeves, too much for Brown to handle (Brown said it himself).
I was really impressed with Murray with his FO SF match. He just shown us how intelligent he is, giving Stan all sorts of troubles despite Stan being the fave to win it with his powerful shots tailored for clay. Without all his guile and his court craft, Murray would have lost in straight sets.
The business end of the tournament now beckons for Rafa. The tilt for the title starts with Khachanov, who is no slouch on grass. This is when we will truly see how Rafa’s game stacks up against the main contenders.
Vamos Rafa!
Am very worried about kachanov. Even more than Muller or karlovic.
Actually I’m not worried about Khachanov; he’s a big hitter and big server but he’s not one who’s good at the net. Rafa will move him around and make him come forward more and force errors out of him.
As long as Rafa plays aggressive tennis and doesn’t let his nerve overcomes him, I feel he should win this one. The real test imo is still Cilic, if they meet, whom I heard had hit 31 aces in his match yesterday! Scary!
Cilic is sure dangerous and can hit you off the court but rafa knows him and has played him. He is not a surprise. The court by next Wednesday will get a bit slower too. Also in a best of 5 cilic will find it tough to zone out completely.
Btw Murray is nursing hip injury yet playing so well ?
There was comment on another thread by Paul about balls bouncing high and courts slower..how true is it or is it just a random statement…In AO it was very visible about courts being sped up and even players talked about it…here I have not heard about any player saying anything different this time.