Murray battles past Bolelli in Madrid

Published on Tuesday 12 May 2009 22:51

ANDY Murray enjoyed a successful start to the defence of his title at the Madrid Open with a straight-sets victory over Simone Bolelli – but it proved to be a testing start to the tournament for the reigning champion.

The new world No 3 needed two hours and eight minutes last night before seeing off his Italian opponent 7-6 (11-9), 6-4 to set up a third-round meeting with Spaniard Tommy Robredo, the 16th seed.

Murray had only previously met Bolelli once before, coincidentally at the same stage of this tournament seven months ago, and in that match the Scot was cruising to victory at 6-0 and 2-1 up when the Italian retired.

However, that triumph came on hard court and now, with the event having switched to Murray's less-favoured clay surface at the newly-built La Caja Magica, the Briton found it a lot harder going against the same opponent.

All Murray's 11 career titles so far have come on hard courts and he admitted he needed to improve on clay, where in his last appearance he lost 1-6, 6-3 7-5 defeat to Juan Monaco in the second round of the Rome Masters a fortnight ago.

Murray enjoyed a happier outing in the Spanish capital last night, but he was made to sweat by Bolelli, especially during the first set which lasted an hour and 17 minutes after going to a tie-break. After the opening three games went to serve, Murray survived his first scare when he slipped 30-40 down but the Scot held to level the set up at 2-2.

The 21-year-old was then left rubbing his right knee in agony in the fifth game after colliding with a hoarding in front of his seat as he attempted to reach a Bolelli drop volley, but the British No 1 was soon able to continue without any problems.

Although the Scot earned a break point in the seventh game which he failed to take, he was up against it in the following game when Bolelli stormed into a 30-0 lead on Murray's serve.

The Scot turned on the style to win the next four points and take the game though, and with nothing to separate the two over the following four games, the first set moved into the tie-break.

Murray looked to have gained the upper hand when he built a 4-2 lead and served to make it 5-2, but Bolelli fought back and the Italian had two set points before Murray finally claimed the tie-break 11-9.

The second set proved a similarly close contest, and Murray again looked in a spot of trouble when Bolelli earned a break point in the seventh game.

Murray once more managed to survive that though, and after the first nine games had gone with serve, he had his first chance to win the match after establishing a break point in the tenth game. Bolelli saved that with an ace down the middle, but Murray hit back immediately for another match point. This time Bolelli saw his forehand crash into the net and Murray was able to celebrate the victory.

World No 2 Roger Federer also progressed to the third round, beating Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-5 and will play either American James Blake or Croat Ivo Karlovic for a place in the quarter-finals.

Fernando secured a berth in the last 16 with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Juan Carlos Ferrero.