After his 6-0, 6-4, 6-1 second-round win over Sam Groth on Thursday extended his unbeaten streak against Australians to 17, Murray took time to pay tribute to Hewitt, who was scheduled to play the next match on Rod Laver Arena.
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Groth, ranked 67th in the world and born in New South Wales, boasts the fastest recorded serve in the world at 263kmh and he announced ahead of the match he would go all-out attack with pace, power and serve and volley.
Groth settled into the match somewhat from that point and even managed to break Murray in the seventh game of the second set courtesy of some good play from the back of the court.
He lost in the third round in his first two trips to Melbourne Park in 2000 and ’01 and again last year – in between, he won the title four times and lost one final during a run of reaching the semifinals or better in 11 years.
Murray spoke later about Groth’s compatriot, Lleyton Hewitt, who was due to play on the same court in the evening, against eighth seed David Ferrer.
“It is nice to play different styles”.
“I had a bad serving day against the No. 2 player in the world and that’s probably not going to cut it”, he said.
“This is maybe the third time I played him here and we also played at the French a year ago”.
World number one Novak Djokovic has admitted that he was once offered a six-figure sum to throw a match, but Murray said that he has never been approached in a similar way.
“He was an idol for me – I actually named one of my dogs after him because he was someone that I loved growing up”.
It was now less a matter of whether Groth could challenge than if he could compete as, much to the crowd’s dismay, another service game came and went putting Murray up 3-0.
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Elsewhere in the men’s draw, number four seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland eased to a 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 win against veteran Czech veteran Radek Stepanek and there was also success for American 10th seed John Isner, who overcame Spain’s Marcel Granollers 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-2).
Two-time champion Victoria Azarenka was the most impressive of the women’s winners when she hammered Danka Kovinic 6-1, 6-2 to reach the third round for the loss of just three games in total.
Murray had never played Groth before in singles but he had faced him in a doubles match, when he played alongside brother Jamie in September’s Davis Cup semi-final.
“It’s just in the evenings and mornings I need to make sure I’ve got the alarm set, ordered the food properly, got all my stuff ready for the next day and whatever”.
“I retired because I had a baby and I didn’t really think to come back”, the Ukrainian said after the match. And I thought, ‘Yeah, great.
It will represent a significant step up on Saturday but the bottom half of the draw is opening up for the Briton who, having usurped Williams, is now enjoying the ninth seed’s path.
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Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza, seeded No. 3, No. 7 Angelique Kerber, No. 9 Karolina Pliskova, No. 15 Madison Keys and No. 20 Ana Ivanovic had second-round wins. “I might be just cheering for that one”.
