• BNP Paribas Open

Murray too classy for Seppi at Indian Wells

ESPN staff
March 14, 2010
Andy Murray was not overly exerted against Andreas Seppi © Getty Images
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Andy Murray safely negotiated his first competitive match at the BNP Paribas Open, beating Andreas Seppi 6-4 6-4 on Sunday.

As No. 4 seed, Murray received a bye into the second round of the competition, where he was handed the task of overcoming Italian Seppi, who had seen off Robby Ginepri in the opening round.

Murray's lack of match play led to a rusty start from the Briton, who lost his serve twice in an ebb-and-flow first set that yielded five breaks of serve. Seppi was quick to pounce on any second serves, and Murray offered up plenty of opportunities as only 41 per cent of first serves found their target.

The world No. 4 has become known for his all-round talent though, and he battled through to cause Seppi plenty of problems of his own, taking the opening set 6-4.

With the advantage secured, Murray settled into the kind of form that he will expect to maintain in the latter stages of the competition, upping his statistics as Seppi's chances to make inroads dried up. The Scot claimed the only break of the second set to go 4-3 ahead, and he served out comfortably to set up a third round meeting with Michael Russell, who beat Igor Andreev 4-6 6-3 6-2.

After the match, Murray admitted it was good to get back to playing tennis after answering plenty of questions following Britain's recent Davis Cup disaster. "I did what I needed to do," said Murray on Sky Sports. "I feel good and hopefully next round I'll play better.

"It's been a tough few weeks, for obvious reasons. There's a lot of stuff going on off the court, in the media, a lot of questions asked about various things and it's just nice to be over here now. I've had a few weeks off. It's nice to get back on the court and playing a tournament and hopefully I can do well."

World No.1 Roger Federer was forced into a third set but eventually progressed to the third round after getting past Victor Hanescu 6-3 6-7 6-1.

Federer began and finished in clinical fashion, dropping just one point on his serve in the first set and just four in the decider. He achieved this statistic despite succeeding with just 55% of first attempts over the course of the match, compared to Hanescu's 76%.

The Romanian gave his all in the second set, which lasted more than half the match, and edged it in the tie-breaker 7-5 after the players traded solo breaks during the set. But Hanescu couldn't maintain his level and Federer's class shone through in the end.

Top 10 players Andy Roddick and Robin Soderling both scored straight-forward victories to make it through, Roddick beating Lu Yen-Hsun 6-4 6-4 and Soderling taking out Evgeny Korolev 6-2 6-4.

Ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is safely through to the third round after he defeated Marinko Matosevic 6-1 6-3. In a match that saw neither player maintain a first-serve success rate above 50 per cent, Tsonga's brute power was far too much for his Australian opponent.

Marcos Baghdatis ensured he will provide Federer's third round competition. Baghdatis, who is enjoying his tennis right now, defeated Arnaud Clement 7-6(7) 6-1 despite only getting 39 per cent of first serves in.

Big-serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic suffered an early exit from the competition, losing 7-5 7-6(5) to Nicolas Almagro. Karlovic hit 16 aces in a typically one-dimensional display, but Almagro found a crucial break in the opening set before closing things out in the tie-breaker.

No. 30 seed Janko Tipsarevic is out of the tournament after he was forced to withdraw from his match with Thiemo de Bakker. The match had been going with serve when Tipsarevic retired through injury.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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