MONTREAL, Aug 12 — Andy Murray began his hardcourt campaign with a workmanlike 6-4 6-2 win over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy to ease into the third round of the Montreal Masters yesterday.
Playing his first competitive match since falling to Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon semi-finals, Murray struggled at times to find his rhythm after a five-week layoff but the third seed never looked threatened by his French opponent as he launched his build-up to the US Open.
“The score looked easier than the match was, there was some chances for both of us,” Murray told the centre court crowd. “I retrieved well, tried to keep the ball low over the net and he made a few more errors than I did.
“It’s just match sharpness that I need to work on.”
By the time Murray arrives at Flushing Meadows later this month for the year’s final grand slam he could have replaced Rafael Nadal as number two in the world rankings.
With Nadal making his return from a two-month injury layoff by testing his creaky knees on the Quebec hardcourts, the 22-year-old Scot has been presented a glorious opportunity to nudge the muscular Majorcan out of second spot.
A victory in Montreal would make Murray the highest ever ranked Briton but he could also move up the list if he reaches the semi-finals and Nadal loses in the second or third round or if he advances into Sunday’s final and the Spaniard goes no further than the semi-finals.
Murray came out all guns blazing, breaking the 36th ranked Chardy to open the match and then holding serve to jump out to a 2-0 lead.
But that would be the only break in a tight opening set, the Frenchman forcing Murray to work for the 1-0 lead.
The second set followed a similar pattern as Murray again broke Chardy at the first opportunity and held serve to nose in front 2-0.
But with ominous storm clouds gathering over centre court, Murray moved quickly to end the match breaking Chardy a final time to go up 5-2 and serve out for the win.
Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, who had to qualify his way into the main draw, blitzed wild card Lleyton Hewitt 6-1 6-4 in a first-round battle of the former world number ones in front of a sparse early morning crowd.
Results yesterday (prefix denotes seeding,)
Second round * 4-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) beat Peter Polansky (Canada) 6-4 7-6(6) 3-Andy Murray (Britain) beat Jeremy Chardy (France) 6-4 6-2 8-Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) beat Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) 7-6(4) 7-6(2)
First round * Jan Hernych (Czech Republic) beat Julien Benneteau (France) 6-2 6-3 * David Ferrer (Spain) beat Viktor Troicki (Serbia) 6-3 6-0 * Alejandro Falla (Colombia) beat Dudi Sela (Israel) 6-4 3-6 6-3 10-Fernando Verdasco (Spain) beat Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 6-1 6-7(5) 6-1 Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) beat 17-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) 7-6(5) 6-7(9) 6-4 Andrey Golubev (Kazakhstan) beat 16-Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) 6-3 6-4 John Isner (U.S.) beat Jesse Levine (U.S.) 6-3 6-4 Victor Hanescu (Romania) beat Juergen Melzer (Austria) 6-4 6-3 15-Tommy Robredo (Spain) beat Alex Bogomolov Jr. (U.S.) 6-4 6-2 Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) beat Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 6-1 6-4 — Reuters
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