Murray rolls past Almagro

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:44

The 22-year-old was pushed in the first set as his Spanish opponent produced some fierce hitting but it was the world number two who reacted better to a rain delay and booked a place in the third round against Radek Stepanek.

Murray won the Rogers Cup title in Montreal on Sunday, and leapfrogged Rafael Nadal into the world’s top two, with only Roger Federer now ahead of him.

The match began with serves dominant – Murray taking his first three games to love but Almagro was combining ferocious drives with subtlety when required, and a fine serve out wide gave the Spaniard a 5-4 lead, forcing Murray to serve to stay in the set.

Almagro produced a wonderful angled shot to take a 15-0 lead but then had a couple of unforced errors as Murray levelled at 5-5.

However, with Almagro one point away from a 6-5 lead, play was suspended because of rain before returning after a short delay.

The Spaniard promptly went ahead to force Murray to serve to stay in the set again. He saved a set point as three unanswerable serves brought the match level at 6-6 and into a tie-break.

Almagro put a shot just wide and Murray took a 3-0 lead as his opponent put a shot into the net. From that stage Murray was always one step ahead and he served out to take the first set.

Murray broke Almagro in the second game of the second set and a ferocious passing shot saw the Scot take a 3-0 lead. The match then continued on serve and, despite a couple of massive forehands from Almagro, Murray took a 5-2 lead.

A cross-court return saw Murray move to match point which he squandered, but the mistake was reciprocated by Almagro to bring up the Scot’s second match point. The pair traded wild shots and in the end Almagro went long to tie up the second set and overall victory.

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