Andy Murray overcame a tentative start to the second set to defeat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-2, 7-5, in the first round of the China Open.
The world No.2 displayed no signs of the thigh injury that he picked up during the Davis Cup as he moved around the court without difficulty. Facing Seppi, a player who he has defeated in seven out of their eight previous meetings, Murray utilized his serve to his advantage in what turned out to be a closer than expected encounter.
Murray’s game plan of staying in the point and drawing the error from his opponent gave him great success during the start of the match. The top seed was once again displaying his brick wall defensive play and dropped just five points on his serve throughout the opening set. On the other hand, an error-stricken Seppi struggled to generate any rhythm in his play. A series of costly forehand and backhand errors from the Italian enabled Murray to stroll to a double break and clinch the 6-2 lead after 34 minutes of play.
Despite his one-sided start to the match, Murray began to come undone on the court after a double fault guided Seppi to a 2-0 lead at the start of the second set. Seppi’s lead was short-lived after the Brit battled back with an aggressive backhand return to break back and level 2-2. As the disparity between the two men on the court grew less, Murray became increasingly frustrated with his inability to break the world No.94. Despite the threat pose by Seppi, Murray was still able to come out on top. A forehand cross-court winner combined with a shocking smash into the net from his opponent elevated the top seed to three match points. The match was then gifted to Murray following a Seppi double fault.
In what was his first match since picking up a minor injury, Murray produced 16 winners compared to 23 unforced errors at the National Tennis Centre in Beijing. More positively, he won 88% of his first service points and produced seven aces.
Next up for Murray will be the winner of the all-Russian clash between Andrey Kuznetsov and Konstantin Kravchuk.
.@andy_murray beats Andreas #Seppi 6-2 7-5 in Beijing to move into round two @ChinaOpen. Solid. #ATP pic.twitter.com/kwd9Hsouyu
— TennisTV (@TennisTV) 4 October 2016
