Murray eases past Ljubicic

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:18

The British number one was playing his first match since losing to Fernando Verdasco in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

He did not reach anything like top form but did not need to against Ljubicic, who is a fading force at the top level these days.

Murray secured the only break of the opening set in the eighth game and moved to the brink of victory with an eight-game winning run.

A lapse allowed Ljubicic to get on the board with a break when Murray was serving for the match but it was only a temporary reprieve as the Scot wrapped things up in his next service game.

The second seed will play Italy’s Andreas Seppi, who won their only previous meeting in 2006, in the last 16.

Murray was content with his performance and admitted he had benefited from Ljubicic’s service struggles.

He said: “I lost against Ivan two times out of three so I was expecting a difficult match.

“He normally serves very, very well but tonight I didn’t think he served his best, which made it a bit easier for me.

“There weren’t too many rallies, there were a lot of mistakes but it was very tough to see out here. I’m happy to come through reasonably quickly.”

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