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Sixth seed, Andy Murray, has cruised into the third round of the Australian Open with a 6-1 6-3 6-2 victory over Australia’s Marinko Matosevic.
In a perfect start for the world number 6, Murray breezed through the first set in just 21 minutes.
Murray, who only lost one point on his serve in the first set, raced to a 5-0 lead after breaking the Australian twice in the opening set.
He would win 26 of the first 34 points to stun the Australian and the large home crowd.
The dominance continued in the second set as Murray broke in the second game of the set, and race to a 3-0 lead.
Despite a late break to Matosevic in the set, Murray cruised to a 6-3 win, for a two sets to love lead.
Murray then eliminated any threat of an Australian comeback, double breaking Matosevic in the third set, to win it 6-2.
While the second and third set didn’t look close, the Australian played better than the first set, but couldn’t take his chances.
At the crucial points, Murray’s class shone through, as he was able to win the majority of them to dominate the match.
Matosevic conceded that Murray was the better player today.
“Andy [Murray] was too good today for me.”
“I didn’t serve well enough, and my main strength, my returns, were done poorly today,” the Australian added.
The Australian also admitted that he tried to go for everything to try to beat Murray and conceded too many unforced errors.
“My level wasn’t going to beat [Murray] today. I had to raise my level to beat him. When you try to play above yourself the unforced errors come.”
On reflection of his Australian Open singles campaign being over, the Victorian was happy with his performance.
“Last year I made quarters [Brisbane] quarters [Sydney] back to back before losing to Nishikori in 5 sets [here].”
“If you asked me, would I take one round here over those quarters? I’d take the one round here for sure.”
For Murray he was pleased for the win.
“I felt I struck the ball a bit better today than I did in my first round. I played a good match today.”
He now plays Joao Sousa in the 3rd round who upset Martin Klizan earlier today.
“He fights hard. He doesn’t have one massive weapon, but he definitely gets the most out of his game. He’s physically in very good shape. He lasts the long matches well. Yeah, he’ll make it tough for me,” Murray said about his next opponent.
Murray will play Sousa on Friday. For Matosevic, he plays doubles with Marcos Baghdatis tomorrow.
Australian Marinko Matosevic faces one of the toughest tasks in tennis as he battles Britain’s Andy Murray in the second round of the Australian Open.
Join The Roar for live scores and commentary of the second round match from around 1pm AEDT.
Heading into this match, everything is against the Australian, as he battles the World Number 6.
Before focusing on that though, it was great to see the Australian win for the first time in the main draw of the Australian Open.
After five straight losses, in five successive years, Matosevic finally ended the drought and secured his first win against Alexander Kudryavtsev.
It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t flashy, but in the end the Australian got it done in the hard way. Fighting back from two sets to one down, Matosevic would win eight of the last 11 games to secure the victory.
It doesn’t get any easier for him as he faces the two time Grand Slam champion today. Murray was a comfortable winner against India’s Yuki Bhambri in the opening round. His straight set win over him was a solid start to the tournament.
He is expected to go deep into the tournament over the next two weeks and test Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in his side of the draw.
His record, and stats, over Matosevic would suggest that this match won’t last long today. He hasn’t lost to the Australian in three meetings between the two and they last faced each other two weeks ago in the Hopman Cup.
The 6-3, 6-2 victory was a comfortable one for the British number 1.
They have also played at Grand Slam level with two facing each other in the second round off the French Open. Murray also won that battle in straight sets 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.
For Murray he hasn’t lost to a player outside of the top 80 since 2012 at Indian Wells. Matosevic, who is 81 in the world, would need to break that drought today. The Australian also hasn’t beaten a top ten player in his career.
This is a big miss-match and Murray is a big favourite. If Matosevic is any chance of winning today, he needs to serve well. The Australian needs to make the set last as long as possible.
Dragging each set to a tiebreaker, or a 6-5 scoreline, and creating pressure on Murray to make a mistake for a break will be the key to the match. If the Aussie can do that, then he can win a set or two today.
I don’t expect that happen. Murray has too much class for the Australian and he will show that.
It will be a straight set win for him.
PREDICTION – Andy Murray 3-0
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