Andy Murray and Joe Salisbury won their second match in the men’s doubles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The British pair overcame German duo Kevin Krawietz and Tim Putz 6-2, 7-6 to progress to the third round.
The two-time singles gold medalist showed no signs of the niggling quad injury that forced him to choose between competing in the singles or doubles at this year’s Games.
Murray, 34, opted to withdraw from his first round singles match against Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime after advice from the Team GB medical team.
The Brits surged ahead with an early break, but despite a rain delay on what was a dreary day in Tokyo, the pair kept their momentum and were able to win a much tighter second set on a tie-break by seven points to two.
This is the first time Murray and 2020 Australian Open doubles champion Salisbury, 29, have played together in a tournament, but you would never know with their performances so far.
After tasting success on two occasions in the singles at the Olympics, Murray is confident he and doubles world number nine Salisbury have what it takes to go all the way in Tokyo.
“I think we have the potential to be a really good team, I think the result today showed that," the Scot said post match.
“Doubles is always tricky because sometimes the matches can come down to a few points.”
He added: “I think we were well deserved winners today, we created lots of chances, but not every doubles match is like that.
“I think if we keep the same sort of attitude and everything, prepare diligently, I think we've got a chance of doing well. But it's not easy, just because we won that match.”
There were contrasting fortunes for Andy’s brother Jamie as he and Neal Skupski were defeated 6-3, 6-4 in the second round by the Japanese pair of Kei Nishikori and Ben McLachlan.
