Seppi stroll for Murray

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:33

Murray won the opening set 6-1 in just 22 minutes and although Seppi rallied in the second, Murray crucially broke his serve to win it 6-4.

The Scot, hoping to win his first major title on grass, headed into the match as the first Briton to be top seed in the tournament and looked good value for his status winning in just 59 minutes.

The British number one was forced to expend some early energy in the opening game which the serving Italian won comfortably, but Seppi found it difficult to return Murray’s serve in the following game and the home favourite easily restored parity on the scoreboard.

The Scot broke Seppi’s serve in the third game thanks to an untimely double fault from the Italian and repeated the feat in the fifth game without his opponent managing to score a single point.

Murray quickly went two-up in the second set but Seppi fought back to break the Briton’s serve for the first time in the third game.

The Italian followed up his success by holding serve in the fourth game to put him back in the match at 2-2. But after a disastrous showing in the opening set, Seppi was now beginning to pose Murray all kinds of problems.

The number one seed had to dig deep to ensure he held his serve in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead. But the Italian, ranked number 48 in the world, made it 4-4 and for the first time in the match, the Scot looked uncomfortable.

However, Seppi’s hopes of breaking Murray’s serve in the next game petered out when the world number three delivered a stunning forehand to the baseline, before the Scot secured a place in the third round when he broke serve to take the match.

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