Andy Murray makes quick work of Lukas Rosol to join fellow Brits in second round of the US Open 2016

Murray eases through 6-3, 6-2, 6-2
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Paul Newman31 August 2016

Andy Murray will have to win five more matches to extend his unbroken sequence of appearances in tournament finals to eight, but on the evidence of his first-round performance here at the US Open last night, the Scot has every chance of prolonging the best run of his career.

The Wimbledon and Olympic champion crushed the Czech Republic’s Lukas Rosol 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in an hour and 52 minutes to earn a second-round encounter with Marcel Granollers, a 30-year-old Spaniard who has failed to win a set in his last four meetings with Murray.

With Dan Evans beating Rajeev Ram earlier in the day and Naomi Broady getting the better of Laura Robson, Britain will have five singles players through to the second round here for the first time since Jo Durie, Anne Hobbs, Sara Gomer, Annabel Croft and Andrew Castle all flew the flag in 1987. The eight-strong British contingent in the first round was Britain’s biggest in New York for 31 years.

Johanna Konta and Kyle Edmund play their second-round matches today, against Tsvetana Pironkova and Ernesto Escobedo respectively. Five Britons also made it to the second round at Wimbledon this summer.

Murray’s progress never looked in doubt once he had made the first break of serve in the sixth game. The 29-year-old world No2 served well throughout and did not have to defend a single break point before securing his victory just after 11pm in the final match of the day at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Rosol, a big hitter whose power proved too much for Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon four years ago, was under constant pressure from the quality of Murray’s returns and made 45 unforced errors to just 17 by his opponent.

“I served very well,” Murray said. “I used good variation on the second serve. My first and second serve were very good tonight. That’s something that I worked on a lot. It was good through the grass at Wimbledon.”

Murray had eased up in his preparations for the year’s final Grand Slam event after his recent exertions in claiming his second Olympic gold medal and reaching the final in Cincinnati, but looked sharp from the start.

US Open Tennis 2016 - In pictures

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“It was tough to get the balance totally right in the last week because I wanted to get used to the conditions but also didn’t want to spend so much time on the court that I came in feeling tired, because it could have been quite easy to do that,” Murray said. “But I felt good out there. I didn’t waste too much energy, which is important, because it was obviously a late finish.”

Murray kept his focus despite some challenging distractions. With the new roof in the cavernous 24,000-capacity stadium capturing the crowd noise more than ever, the match was played to a constant background hum. At times it seemed that almost everyone in the crowd was talking at once.

“It’s quite different playing out there in that arena now,” Murray added. “It’s a lot louder than most places that we play, so you don’t hear the ball as much. There’s a slightly different sound in there.

“It was extremely humid tonight, which makes it a little bit easier to control the ball. The court is obviously cooler [than in the day], so it’s staying a little bit lower. During the day that’s obviously quite different. The ball’s bouncing up a lot more, tends to be a little bit harder to control.

“Now, because of the roof, there’s no wind at all. It almost has a feel of playing indoors because there’s no wind. The playing conditions are perfect.”

Aljaz Bedene was unable to join his fellow Britons in the second round. The world No77 was beaten 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 by Australia’s Nick Kyrgios, who was handed a code violation by the umpire in the very first game after hitting a ball away in frustration that nearly hit a line judge.

Ivo Karlovic set a US Open record when he hit 61 aces in a 4-6, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6, 7-5 victory over Yen-Hsun Lu, of Taiwan.

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