ANDY Murray continues his build up to Flushing Meadows on the American hardcourts when he faces Sam Querrey in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters.
The world No9 will be hoping to take his good form from Toronto last week, when he defeated Novak Djokovic for the first time, and performed well against eventual winner Rafael Nadal before going down in straight sets to the French Open and Wimbledon
champion in the semi-finals, across the border into the USA.
Querrey, the 6ft 6in big-serving Californian, is currently ranked 46th in the world. He lost his only previous meeting with Murray, but that was on the grass of Newport over two years ago when he was ranked outside the top 200.
The 21-year-old American has been labelled the 'next Todd Martin' in his homeland as the desperate search for promising talent continues at a time when American men's tennis is at one of its lowest ebbs.
Yesterday, top seed Roger Federer survived a major scare to get past Robby Ginepri at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters and cling on to the world No1 spot.
With Rafael Nadal hot on the Swiss' heels for top spot in the ATP rankings, any slip by Federer in the second-round clash in Cincinnati would have paved the way for the Spaniard to cash in.
But Federer battled back from losing the first set to triumph 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (7/5), 6-0 over his unseeded rival.
If the second-seeded Nadal can win the title and Federer bows out before the semi- finals, the 22-year-old will rise to the top of the rankings.
Richard Gasquet earned a walkover into round two when Michael Llodra was forced to retire due to injury.
The full article contains 303 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
