ON THE first day Roger Federer was asked a question by Alejandro Falla and answered it. On day two Andy Murray wasn’t asked much by Jan Hajek but posed a question of his own. The question was whether his fifth tilt at a Wimbledon title can result in success given his form coming into the championships.
Twelve months back the Scot arrived at Wimbledon with four titles – from Doha, Rotterdam, Miami and Queens. This year he has none and faces accusations that his game has become too passive, that he is playing from too far back behind the baseline and not forcing issues in the way he needs to win Grand Slam matches.
Those issues emerged again yesterday. But thankfully for the world number four just fleetingly, his sluggish start against 26-year-old Hajek, where he dropped serve in the third game, were quickly forgotten as he romped to a 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 win on court one.
Be sure he will be scheduled for Centre Court and the queen tomorrow.
“The start of the match was tricky. I hadn’t seen him that much,” Murray said afterwards. “When I went behind I felt calm. Once I got the break back I dictated my shots a bit more and made him do the running.
“I thought I played well. I haven’t played that many matches lately. Obviously winning in straight sets in the first round is good,” continued the stoic Murray, adding that the distraction in South Africa has diverted attention from him.
“There’s definitely pressure on me to play well. It’s definitely been a bit quieter this year because of the World Cup,” he said. “So that has helped.”
Murray followed 2008 champion and French Open winner Rafa Nadal into the second round, neither of them experiencing the chastening passages of play that an out-of-sorts champion Federer had to endure in his first outing on Monday.
The Spanish left-hander missed last year’s tournament because of a knee injury but has arrived in London with a shine on his game. Ranked number one in the world, a position that will hold even if Federer wins the competition, Nadal skinned Japanese hope Kei Nishikori in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
“It doesn’t feel like a defence of the title,” explained Nadal, having missed defending it last year.
“Roger has to defend that,” he added before saying that of Federer’s records it is his 23 successive Grand Slam semi-finals that most impressed him.
“So 23 semi-finals in a row. In my opinion impossible to do it another time. Almost six years playing in all Grand Slams. You can have no injury, no bad day. It’s amazing,” said Nadal, who holds the record for 81 straight matches on clay.
Wildcard Nishikori was tamed in just over two hours as Nadal seeks to repeat what he did in 2008 and win Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same year. The player to last achieve that feat prior to Nadal was Bjorn Borg in 1980.
American interest also continued with the raw-boned 6ft 6ins Queens tournament winner Sam Querrey. The right-hander from California met with the spidery Sergiy Stakhovsky, who also happened to win the pre-Wimbledon grass event at ‘s-Hertogenbosch. All ended good in the hood with the Santa Monica 22-year-old winning the first two sets 7-6(4), 6-3 before the Ukrainian retired injured. His US compatriot Robert Kendrick was not so fortunate in meeting Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round.
A Frenchman with a good attitude, the highly-talented 25-year-old, who has taken over as the leading French player from Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils and made the final of the Australian Open in 2008, advanced in four sets, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4.
MEN'S SINGLES: First Round:(25) Thomaz Bellucci (Bra) bt Ricardo Mello (Bra) 6-4 6-4 6-4, Tobias Kamke (Ger) bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spa) 5-7 2-6 7-5 6-4 6-4, Ivan Dodig (Cro) bt Oscar Hernandez (Spa) 6-1 6-3 6-3, (26) Gilles Simon (Fra) bt Guillermo Alcaide (Spa) 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-0), (2) Rafael Nadal (Spa) bt Kei Nishikori (Jpn) 6-2 6-4 6-4, Andreas Seppi (Ita) bt (19) Nicolas Almagro (Spa) 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (9-7) 6-2, Illya Marchenko (Ukr) bt Michael Berrer (Ger) 6-3 7-5 0-0 ret, (9) David Ferrer (Spa) bt Nicolas Kiefer (Ger) 6-4 6-2 6-3, (18) Sam Querrey (USA) bt Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukr) 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 2-1 ret, Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra) bt Marc Gicquel (Fra) 6-1 7-5 3-6 6-1, Andreas Beck (Ger) bt Jamie Baker (Brit) 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 6-4, Florent Serra (Fra) bt Simon Greul (Ger) 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 6-2, Robin Haase (Ned) bt James Blake (USA) 6-2 6-4 6-4, Alexandr Dolgopolov (Ukr) bt Marco Chiudinelli (Swi) 6-4 6-3 6-3, (10) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) bt Robert Kendrick (USA) 7-6 (7-2) 6-6 (8-6) 3-6 6-4, Martin Fischer (Aut) bt Go Soeda (Jpn) 6-4 6-3 6-1, (13) Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) bt Dudi Sela (Isr) 6-3 6-4 4-6 7-6 (7-2), Jeremy Chardy (Fra) bt Daniel Gimeno-Traver (Spa) 6-3 6-3 6-1, Lukas Lacko (Svk) bt (24) Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp) 6-3 2-6 6-3 6-1, (4) Andy Murray (Brit) bt Jan Hajek (Cze) 7-5 6-1 6-2, (32) Julien Benneteau (Fra) bt Kristof Vliegen (Bel) 2-6 6-7 (6-8) 6-1 6-2 7-5, Jarkko Nieminen (Fin) bt Stefan Koubek (Aut) 6-4 7-6 (7-3) 5-7 6-2, (6) Robin Soderling (Swe) bt Robby Ginepri (USA) 6-2 6-2 6-3, Lukasz Kubot (Pol) bt Blaz Kavcic (Slo) 4-6 6-2 6-2 6-3,(33) Philipp Petzschner (Ger) bt Stephane Robert (Fra) 6-4 7-6 (8-6) 4-6 2-6 6-4, Michael Russell (USA) bt Pere Riba-Madrid (Spa) 6-3 7-6 (7-1) 2-6 7-6 (7-1) , Fabio Fognini (Ita) bt (8) Fernando Verdasco (Spa) 7-6 (11-9) 6-2 6-7 (6-8) 6-4, Julian Reister (Ger) bt Rik De Voest (Rsa) 6-4 7-5 3-6 6-2, Marcel Granollers (Spa) bt Frederico Gil (Por) 6-3 6-0 6-3, Xavier Malisse (Bel) bt (14) Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spa) 6-2 6-7 (6-8) 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-1,
