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British duo overcome Kazakhstan in Perth


 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:58

With the tie level going into the mixed doubles Andy Murray and Laura Robson had to save a match point in the third-set tiebreaker before finally clinching the match 6-2 5-7 7-6 (12-10) against the eight-nation tournament’s lowest-seeded team.

Under tournament rules the third set in the mixed doubles is decided by the first team to reach 10 points with a two-point advantage, and after a closely-fought finale it was Great Britain who won when Andrey Golubev hit a Robson serve long.

Robson had earlier lost her singles match 4-6 6-3 6-0 to a flu-ridden Yaroslava Shvedova before Murray levelled matters with a routine 6-2 6-2 win over Golubev.

For Murray it was a chance to ease his way back into action as he began his preparations for this month’s Australian Open by breezing past Golubev, the world’s 133rd ranked player, in just 61 minutes.

The Scot is playing in Perth this week to acclimatise early to hot conditions in Australia and under the round-robin format of the tournament is assured of playing at least three singles matches as well as three mixed doubles matches alongside Robson.

The world number four did not, however, need to raise a sweat in his first match of the new year as he lost just one point on his service in an opening set that lasted just 28 minutes.

Murray spent the past three weeks in Miami undergoing an intensive training regime as he attempts to break his grand slam duck and there were signs it will stand him in good stead as he chased down anything Golubev managed to throw at him.

He showed impressive speed to reach a Golubev drop shot and raised the cheers of the crowd with an unlikely winner down the line.

But for the most part there was little else to trouble Murray as Golubev meekly surrender the match with a double fault.

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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.