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Federer, Nadal, Murray cruise at Wimbledon

30th June, 2015
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Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray have swept into the Wimbledon second round in conditions of near-record heat at the All England Club.

Second seeded Federer, bidding to become the first man to win eight Wimbledon titles and take his majors tally to 18, enjoyed a 67-minute, 6-1 6-3 6-3 win over Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia, the world No.88 he beat at the French Open this year.

Federer will face Sam Querrey of the United States for a place in the last 32.

“I was happy I played aggressive. He changed up his game a little bit which made it a little bit more difficult so it was interesting for me. But I’m very happy, always, to win like that,” the 33-year-old Swiss said following Tuesday’s match.

Two-time champion Nadal, defeated in the second, first and fourth rounds in the last three years, enjoyed a 6-4 6-2 6-4 win over Thomaz Bellucci, his fifth win in five meetings against the 42nd-ranked Brazilian.

Tenth-seeded Nadal, his lowest ranking for a decade, faces Germany’s Dustin Brown for a place in the last 32. Brown beat him on grass at Halle in 2014.

Murray, the 2013 champion, enjoyed a comfortable 6-4 7-6 (7/3) 6-4 victory over Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin, the world No.59 and next faces Dutchman Robin Haase.

“It was a tough match. I made it hard for myself at the end of the second set,” Murray said.

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Temperatures on Tuesday rocketed to about 30C, but Wednesday’s heat is expected to reach a Wimbledon record high of about 35 degrees.

Organisers say the heat rule, which allows for a 10-minute break between the second and third sets of women’s matches, can be used when temperatures rise above 30.1 degrees Celsius.

However, the rule which has been adopted by Wimbledon after lobbying from the WTA, does not apply to men even though they have to slug it out over the best of five sets.

The highest-ever temperature recorded at Wimbledon was 34C in 1976.

Nadal, who lives in sun-kissed Mallorca, said he would be happy to see the sun keep shining.

“In Australia it can be much, much worse so it’s no comparison but actually it’s beautiful,” the Spaniard said.

“When you have this weather here in Wimbledon it’s probably one of the best places in the world.”

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French 13th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was probably wishing for a few clouds after he spent more than four hours to see off Luxemburg’s Gilles Muller 7-6 (10/8) 6-7 (3/7) 6-4 3-6 6-2.

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