Murray makes Gulbis pay for his taunt

Published on Thursday 25 June 2009 22:20

WHATEVER academic subjects Ernests Gulbis has had time to study in the spare hours left by his tennis education, psychology cannot have been one of them.

Even a rudimentary knowledge of the social science would surely have been enough to let the 20-year-old Latvian know that it is unwise to accuse Andy Murray of gamesmanship the night before you meet him on Centre Court.

Some players might be destabilised by such a charge that they cannot maintain their focus during a match, but Murray is certainly not one of them. The Scot is in fine form on grass, as he showed in winning the Aegon Championship 12 days ago.

Given he went into yesterday's second-round meeting with Gulbis as a strong favourite to progress to the last 32, the primary danger for him might have been an inability to rise to the occasion. If that was the case, however, Gulbis' claims that Murray had fraudulently taken a medical time-out during their meeting at Queen's in 2008 put paid to that.

From first to last of a match he dominated with apparent ease, the No3 seed was focused and on top of his game. Gulbis, who announced himself on the stage of world tennis last year by getting to the quarter-finals of the French Open, was actually playing reasonably well, but he might as well have been hitting tennis balls at an oncoming train.

Against Robert Kendrick in the first round on Tuesday, Murray lost the second set on his way to a four-set victory after failing to keep his concentration levels up. No such failing was evident yesterday, as he pummelled his way to a 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 victory in just under 90 minutes.

Over the piece, Gulbis' first serve was actually marginally faster than Murray's, but that was irrelevant. The Scot was able to break it almost at will, not only seizing on the slightest of errors from his opponent, but also keeping Gulbis guessing with the sheer variety of his shots.

The opening four games of the contest were the closest the younger man would come to parity with the 22-year-old. From 2-2, however, having felt his way into the game, Murray took charge.

He broke for a 3-2 lead, then after holding serve to stretch his advantage to 4-2, broke again to give himself the chance to serve for the first set. He took it, sending down an ace on set point to wrap it up in just 25 minutes.

Gulbis ensured himself of a solid start to the second set, giving the Scot little opportunity to attack his serve. The arrival of a Mexican Wave during the changeover after the Latvian had gone 2-1 up suggested that some of the crowd had quickly grown bored with what was on show, or at least that they were suffering none of the tension which had been apparent during some of Murray's first-round win over Kendrick.

One reason for that lack of nerves was the fact Murray's serve was functioning far better, with almost three-quarters of his first serve being in. Whatever Gulbis could do, he could do better, and it looked like being just a matter of time before another break came.

Gulbis served well in the seventh game to go 4-3 up. He held his nerve and his serve again in the ninth game, but then at 5-5 he displayed the slightest chink in his armour and Murray was in. One break point, one loss of serve. One easy game later and Murray was two sets to the good.

Gulbis was aware by this time that there was little or nothing he could do to escape elimination from the competition. He saved a break point in the first game of the third set, but ten minutes later was unable to repeat the feat and as a consequence went 2-1 down.

Gulbis' next two service games were among his best, particularly the seventh game, which he rattled through in next to no time. But Murray, job almost done, was merely awaiting his moment to deliver the coup de grace.

After holding his own serve to take a 5-3 lead, he upped the pressure on Gulbis, who went 30-0 behind. He briefly recovered, but then on match-point Murray swatted a crosscourt winner which symbolised the comprehensive manner in which he had dispatched his opponent.

There had been several flourishes like that on individual strokes, but overall this was a highly clinical display rather than a flamboyant one. Murray did not have to hit the heights to leave Gulbis in the doldrums.

The Scot has a day off today, then will be back to play his third-round match tomorrow, almost certainly third on Centre Court, as his ties with Kendrick and Gulbis have been.

His opponent will be Victor Troicki, the No30 seed from Serbia who beat the unseeded Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver – as well as fading light – on Court 14. Troicki lost the first set on the tiebreak, but roared back to take the second without the loss of a game. Gimeno-Traver then staged a recovery himself to take the third set in comprehensive fashion, 6-1. Troicki, however, managed to compose himself and also managed to avoid coming back to settle the match today by closing out the final two sets 6-3, 7-5.

• We'll be covering Andy Murray's third round match against Victor Troicka live online at Scotsman.com. The match is expected to be third to start on centre court on Saturday. Click here to join the action

MEN'S SINGLES

2nd Round: Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) bt (5) Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg) 6-3 7-5 7-5, Philipp Petzschner (Ger) bt Mischa Zverev (Ger) 4-6 7-6 (15-13) 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-0, (16) David Ferrer (Spa) bt Fabio Fognini (Ita) 6-2 6-2 6-3, (3) Andy Murray (Gbr) bt Ernests Gulbis (Lat) 6-2 7-5 6-3, Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spa) bt Fabrice Santoro (Fra) 6-7 (1-7) 6-3 6-4 6-3, (12) Nikolay Davydenko (Rus) bt Victor Crivoi (Rom) 6-4 6-4 6-2, (6) Andy Roddick (USA) bt Igor Kunitsyn (Rus) 6-4 6-2 3-6 6-2, (31) Victor Hanescu (Rom) bt Nicolas Devilder (Fra) 6-2 6-3 6-1, Andreas Seppi (Ita) bt Marc Gicquel (Fra) 7-5 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 5-7 6-4, (8) Gilles Simon (Fra) bt Thiago Alves (Bra) 5-7 6-3 6-4 6-4, (26) Jurgen Melzer (Aut) bt Benjamin Becker (Ger) 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 7-6 (7-1), (20) Tomas Berdych (Cze) bt Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra) 6-2 6-4 6-4, (19) Stanislas Wawrinka (Swi) bt Martin Vassallo Arguello (Arg) 6-3 6-2 6-2; (10) Fernando Gonzalez (Chi) bt Leonardo Mayer (Arg) 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-4 6-4

WOMEN'S SINGLES

2nd Round: (9) Caroline Wozniacki (Den) bt Maria Kirilenko (Rus) 6-0 6-4, (20) Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spa) bt Tathiana Garbin (Ita) 7-6 (7-5) 6-2, (15) Flavia Pennetta (Ita) bt Vania King (USA) 6-2 6-2, Sabine Lisicki (Ger) bt Patricia Mayr (Aut) 6-2 6-4, (5) Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) bt Pauline Parmentier (Fra) 6-1 6-3, (18) Samantha Stosur (Aus) bt Tatjana Malek (Ger) 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-4, (13) Ana Ivanovic (Ser) bt Sara Errani (Ita) 7-5 6-1, (17) Amelie Mauresmo (Fra) bt Kristina Kucova (Svk) 6-3 6-3, (19) Na Li (Chn) bt Olga Govortsova (Blr) 6-4 6-2, Kirsten Flipkens (Bel) bt Elena Baltacha (Gbr) 7-5 6-1, (3) Venus Williams (USA) bt Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukr) 6-3 6-2, (1) Dinara Safina (Rus) bt Rossana De los Rios (Par) 6-3 7-5, Carla Suarez-Navarro (Spa) bt Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) 7-5 4-6 6-1, (11) Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) bt Shuai Peng (Chn) 6-2 6-7 (6-8) 9-7 .

MEN'S DOUBLES

1st Round: Igor Andreev (Rus) & Evgeny Korolev (Rus) bt Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe) & Bjorn Phau (Ger) 7-5 7-5 7-5, Chris Eaton (Gbr) & Alexander Slabinsky (Gbr) bt Marcel Granollers (Spa) & Santiago Ventura (Spa) 6-3 6-4 6-2, Rameez Junaid (Aus) & Philipp Marx (Ger) bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spa) & Ivan Navarro (Spa) 6-4 6-2 6-4, James Blake (USA) & Mardy Fish (USA) bt (3) Lukas Dlouhy (Cze) & Leander Paes (Ind) 6-4 6-4 6-3, Andrei Pavel (Rom) & Horia Tecau (Rom) bt Nicolas Almagro (Spa) & Janko Tipsarevic (Ser) 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 6-4, Johan Brunstrom (Swe) & Jean-Julien Rojer (Aho) bt Colin Fleming (Gbr) & Kenneth Skupski (Gbr) 6-7 (4-7) 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 6-4; James Cerretani (USA) & Victor Hanescu (Rom) bt Oscar Hernandez (Spa) & Albert Montanes (Spa) 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 6-3; Robert Kendrick (USA) & Sam Querrey (USA) bt Julian Knowle (Aut) & Jurgen Melzer (Aut) 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-4; Chris Guccione (Aus) & Frank Moser (Ger) bt Benjamin Becker (Ger) & Rainer Schuettler (Ger) 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 7-5; Arnaud Clement (Fra) & Marc Gicquel (Fra) bt Stefan Koubek (Aut) & Dudi Sela (Isr) 6-2 6-4 2-6 7-6 (7-3).

2nd round: Rogier Wassen (Ned) & Igor Zelenay (Svk) bt (12) Jeff Coetzee (Rsa) & Jordan Kerr (Aus) 3-6 6-3 6-4 3-6 9-7

WOMEN'S DOUBLES

1st round: Alla Kudryavtseva (Rus) & Monica Niculescu (Rom) bt Lourdes Dominguez Lino (Spa) & Arantxa Parra Santonja (Spa) 7-5 4-6 6-1, (15) Chia-Jung Chuang (Tpe) & Sania Mirza (Ind) bt Jill Craybas (USA) & Carly Gullickson (USA) 6-4 6-2, Alisa Kleybanova (Rus) & Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) bt Dominika Cibulkova (Svk) & Janette Husarova (Svk) 6-0 0-0 ret, (10) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) & Nadia Petrova (Rus) bt Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) & Urszula Radwanska (Pol) 6-4 7-6 (7-5), (4) Serena Williams (USA) & Venus Williams (USA) bt Virginie Razzano (Fra) & Aravane Rezai (Fra) 6-3 6-3, Sabine Lisicki (Ger) & Aleksandra Wozniak (Can) bt Maret Ani (Est) & Roberta Vinci (Ita) 6-3 6-3, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) & Francesca Schiavone (Ita) bt Alize Cornet (Fra) & Pauline Parmentier (Fra) 6-2 7-6 (7-4), (13) Zi Yan (Chn) & Jie Zheng (Chn) bt Akiko Morigami (Jpn) & Ayumi Morita (Jpn) 6-1 6-1; Sara Errani (Ita) & Carla Suarez-Navarro (Spa) bt (9) Lisa Raymond (USA) & Vera Zvonareva (Rus) 6-5 ret.

MIXED DOUBLES

1st Round: Michael Mertinak (Svk) & Mara Santangelo (Ita) bt Wesley Moodie (Rsa) & Vladimira Uhlirova (Cze) 3-6 6-2 11-9, Paul Hanley (Aus) & Anastasia Rodionova (Aus) bt Filip Polasek (Svk) & Andrea Hlavackova (Cze) 6-3 6-2, Kenneth Skupski (Gbr) & Katie O'Brien (Gbr) bt Ashley Fisher (Aus) & Abigail Spears (USA) 6-4 6-4, Lucas Arnold Ker (Arg) & Gisela Dulko (Arg) bt Joshua Goodall (Gbr) & Naomi Cavaday (Gbr) 6-2 6-4, Rogier Wassen (Ned) & Tamarine Tanasugarn (Tha) bt Alex Bogdanovic (Gbr) & Melanie South (Gbr) 7-5 6-3 .