Andy Murray has overcome a below-par display to book his place in the third round of the Cincinnati Masters with a 6-4 7-5 victory over Mardy Fish. I hadn’t practised a ton or particularly well for a little while.
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Fish, who has already confirmed he will retire from tennis after the US Open, admits he was pleased with how he played on Monday but concedes he will face a much tougher challenge against the in-form Murray.
He informed the ATP web site: “I used to be somewhat stunned at my degree”.
In the second-round, Fish will play Andy Murray, whom he is 4-4 against in his career.
“He’s pretty fantastic so far”, Fish said of the in-form Scot. “He’s won a ton of matches”.
In another first-round match, Thomaz Bellucci beat Jiri Vesely 7-6 (5), 6-2. The final win for Fish got here two years in the past towards Donskoy in Wiston-Salem.
However, Murray managed to fight back, eventually taking the set 6-4, despite being broken again when serving for the opening set at 5-3.
Venus Williams had to wait out a rain delay of more than two hours before beating Zarina Diyas, 7-6 (6), 6-4. No. 12 seed Timea Bacsinszky also lost, falling to Madison Keys 6-4, 6-3 in a matchup of Wimbledon quarterfinalists.
Elsewhere Ivo Karlovic completed a 6-4 6-7(3) 6-2 win over 10th-seeded Gilles Simon of France while Portugal’s Joao Sousa claimed a 6-2 6-7(5) 6-2 win over Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Andrea Petkovic downed her fellow German Julia Goerges 6-4, 6-2 and there were three-set wins for both Tsvetana Pironkova and Varvara Lepchenko.
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Gasquet saw off qualifier Thanasi Kokkinakis 7-6 (7-5) 6-2, while Goffin wasted the chance to serve out the match against Fernando Verdsaco before eventually progressing 6-4 7-6 (7-4).
