The world number two, who cruised past Viktor Troicki of Serbia earlier this week, was rarely troubled by his Argentine opponent and comfortably progressed 6-3, 6-1 in little over an hour on centre court at the Olympic Tennis Centre in Barra da Tijuca. Andy and Heather Watson, placed second on the list of alternates, will not compete unless there are two withdrawals before the competition gets underway.
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Having failing to serve out the match at 5-3 in the decider, the 25-year-old recovered from 0-40 at 5-5, before eventually setting up a quarter-final match with either second seed Angelique Kerber or Australia’s Sam Stosur. “I feel pretty lucky and privileged that I get another chance tomorrow”.
As it began to look as if Konta might give it all away, an unforced error by Kuznetsova handed the elated Brit victory on her fourth match point to book a place in the quarter-finals. “Jamie is a way more experienced doubles player than me and Jo is obviously playing well too”.
“That’s the longest match I’ve had for ages”.
Johanna Konta plays Russian eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the women’s third round later on Tuesday.
The Scot, 29, has now won 14 matches in a row since losing in the French Open final in June.
Murray, however, also offered his sympathy to his long-time rival and top-ranked player Novak Djokovic, who made a shocking first-round exit at the hands of Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro.
The many Argentinians in the crowd were providing loud support to Monaco but his serve was taking a pounding and Murray quickly moved into a 4-0 lead in the second set.
‘ I hadn’t played a match on a hard court for five months before coming here. “This is the Olympic Games, I know it’s frustrating and disappointing to lose, but it’s my first Games, I was not expecting to come here and win a gold medal like that”.
French Open champion Garbine Muguruza has been upset in the third round of the Olympic tennis tournament by 37th-ranked Monica Puig of Puerto Rico.
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Tenth seed Konta eased through her opening two matches but this was a real step up.
