Andy Murray successfully negotiated his first
obstacle at the US Open as he saw off Russia's Alex Bogomolov despite a
patchy performance on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The third seed began
slowly and lost his opening two service games but he had no trouble
breaking the Bogomolov serve, doing so nine times on the way to a 6-2
6-4 6-1 victory.
Murray was reasonably satisfied with his
performance, saying: "I thought it was a six or seven out of 10. I
didn't serve particularly well at the beginning but I won in straight
sets against a tough player, and that's what I needed to do."
Thoughts on Murray vs Bogomolov Jr.
The
Scot was hoping to carry the momentum from his golden Olympics into the
year's final grand slam but he could not have made a worse start,
dropping his opening service game with a series of errors.
There
had been a rain delay of more than two hours as a heavy thunderstorm hit
Flushing Meadows and Murray appeared to be mentally still in the locker
room.
He pulled level with an immediate break of the Bogomolov
serve only to be broken again as the strange start to the match
continued, the Scot bouncing his racquet on the court in frustration.
Bogomolov,
who switched allegiance from the US to Russia last December, was the
opponent for one of the lowest moments of Murray's career in Miami last
year when, in a post-Australian Open final slump, he lost a fourth
straight match.
The world number four had won their last two
meetings, though, and managed to get himself back on terms once more
with yet another break for 2-2.
And this time he finally held on
to his own serve, although not without saving two more break points, and
at last began to look more comfortable.
He took his third chance
to gain a third straight break of the Bogomolov serve with a lovely
angled backhand, and then ensured his opponent ended the set without
holding serve at all.
Although he had improved markedly, all was
still not well with Murray, who was getting little more than 30% of his
first serves in and muttering to himself.
He promptly dropped
serve again at the start of the second set and this time he could not
retrieve the situation immediately as Bogomolov finally held serve.
The
29-year-old has had a disappointing season, dropping from 34th in the
world at the start of the year to 73rd, but he was playing aggressively
and really taking the game to Murray.
The Scot had to save two
more break points to avoid going 4-1 behind, but he held on and then
drew level at 4-4 when Bogomolov drilled a forehand long.
And
that proved to be the turning point as Murray broke again to win the
set, powering a forehand winner out of the reach of his opponent.
It
had been a strange contest, as Murray's grand slam openers often are,
and the ups and downs continued at the start of the third set as the
Scot broke serve and was then promptly broken straight back.
He
has a habit of conceding his serve at such moments, and, after making it
three breaks in a row, he almost succumbed to a fourth but this time
managed to stave off the threat.
That was the last throw of the
dice as far as Bogomolov was concerned and Murray, who had begun to
struggle a little with cramp in the humid conditions, broke again before
clinching victory with a backhand winner after two hours and 15
minutes.
He looked relieved rather than pleased as he walked to
the net to shake hands and admitted afterwards he had found the match
physically challenging.
He said: "I was struggling a little bit,
there were a lot of long games, long points, we both did a lot of
running. I sweated a lot and it was just a little bit of cramp. I need
to make sure I stay better hydrated."
"I played fairly well from
the back of the court. I just would have liked to have served a bit
better because I wasn't getting many free points on my serve.
"Because
of that, there were a lot more rallies. When he's in a rhythm, he's
tough to break down. It was very, very hot and tough conditions today.
You want to try to win the matches as quickly as possible."
A
heavy thunderstorm earlier in the day had put the matches behind
schedule but there was some home success for the fans to cheer, with
James Blake and
Jack Sock both reaching the second round.
The
two are at opposite ends of their careers, with Blake one of the
veterans of the ATP Tour at 32 while Sock is still a teenager.
The 19-year-old benefited from the retirement of 22nd seed
Florian Mayer, who called it a day with the American leading 6-3 6-2 3-2, while Blake defeated Slovakia's
Lukas Lacko 7-5 6-2 3-6 6-3.
Japan's
Kei Nishikori, the 17th seed, was a 6-1 6-2 6-4 winner over
Guido Andreozzi of Argentina and there were also wins for
Nikolay Davydenko,
Jeremy Chardy and
Marcel Granollers.
