TENNIS ATP500 ROTTERDAM – Top-seed Andy Murray cruised past Nicholas Mahut with 6-3 6-2 in his debut at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. Grigor Dimitrov was upset by Gilles Muller in straight sets with 2-6 6-7. Stan Wawrinka beat local player Huta Jesse Galung in three sets with 6-3 3-6 6-3. Diego Sampaolo
Andy Murray made a winning debut to his Rotterdam campaign with a 6-3 6-2 win over Nicholas Mahut in his first match since his defeat against Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final.
Murray and Mahut drew level to 2-2 in the first set before the Scotsman cruised through reeling off nine of the next ten games to race to a 6-3 5-0 lead. Murray got a early break to win the first set. Murray, who won the Rotterdam title in 2009, faced the only trouble while he was serving for the match at 5-0. Mahut got the only break to win his first game of the second set as Murray committed a double fault on the break point. Mahut confirmed the break for 2-5 but Murray held his next service game to seal the win after one hour and 33 minutes. Murray hit 36 winners to 16 unforced errors and converted on four of his nine break points. He saved five of the six break points he faced.
The Scotsman will take on Vasek Pospisil in the second round.
“I am pleased with my high level. It was a match between two players with different game types”, said Murray.
This year’s Australian Open semifinalist Stan Wawrinka saved eight of the 10 break points he faced but he had to fight hard to battle past Dutchman Jesse Huta Galung (World Number 248) in three sets with 6-3 3-6 6-3. The Lausanne player clinched the first set but he dropped serve twice in the second set. Wawrinka fought back taking the break in the fourth game at 2-1 with a forehand passing shot and converted on his sixth match point to seal the win with 6-3 to set up a second-round match against Guillermo Garcia Lopez who beat Denis Istomin 7-6 (7-5) 6-4. They recently met at the Australian Open where Wawrinka took the win in four sets.
The winner of the match between Wawrinka and Garcia Lopez will face a quarter final clash against Gilles Muller who upset Grigor Dimitrov 6-2 7-6 (10-8) after a hard-fought tie-break in the second set. Muller continues his good period of form after reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open
Italian Andreas Seppi fought back from losing the first set at the tie-break to beat Dutchman Robin Haase 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-3 in two hours and fourteen minutes. Seppi beat Haase for the second time one week after winning their previous head-to-head match in Zagreb. Seppi, who reached the fourth round at the Australian Open and the final in Zagreb last week, clinched the seventh win in eight matches which came down to the decisive set this year. After losing a close tie-break with 5-7 the Sudtyrol player took control of the match in the second and the third set in which he hit 39 winners and won 16 out of 19 points at the net. Seppi converted on six of his eleven break point chances.
Seppi set up the second round match against Australian Open semifinalist Tomas Berdych
Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky is the first player to reach the quarter final after cruising past Austrian rising star Dominic Thiem 6-1 6-3 in 62 minutes. Stakhovsky did not drop his serve in the whole match and had to face six break point chances in the second game of the second set which Thiem failed to convert. Thiem dropped his serve on the first break point and could not recover the break. In the last game of the match Thiem trailed 15-40 at 3-5. He saved four match points but Stakhovsky sealed the win after Thiem made a double fault.
Gael Monfils hit nine aces got through to the quarter finals after his 7-5 7-6 (7-5) win over Roberto Bautista Agut. The Frenchman will take on either Berdych or Seppi.
