Andy Murray looks in good shape to win his second Olympic gold medal. Not only did five of the world’s top 10 players choose to stay at home for a variety of reasons but a clinical win over Juan Mónaco on Tuesday indicated the 2012 champion is reaching a pleasing peak with four matches left.
There were few highlights in his 6-3, 6-1 second-round victory, a smattering of decent tennis and a good deal of beating heat – even though this is officially Brazil’s winter. Murray started with a double fault, serving into the noonday sun, and finished the job from the same end 69 minutes later when Monaco plugged his final backhand into the net. All in all, it was a solid afternoon’s work by the world No 2.
Murray’s simple analysis was fair: “I played pretty well, not many unforced errors [10 for Murray, 12 for Mónaco]. It was a good match.” However, his attention was swiftly drawn to the slightly vexed situation over the mixed doubles. Asked how it was decided that he and Heather Watson would pair up, giving them only a slim chance of playing as they are two outside the cut while his brother, Jamie, and Johanna Konta are guaranteed a start, he said: “The plan was always that Jamie was going to play with Jo. That was it. Jamie’s a way more experienced doubles player than me. Jo’s playing well too, so I think they have a good chance of winning a medal – and there is an outside shot that me and Heather could potentially get in as well. But I’ve played a lot of tennis. It’s been really hard to prepare, after the French and Wimbledon. I hadn’t played a match on hard court for five months, and playing every day, two matches in a row every day is not easy on this surface in these conditions. That made the most sense.”
He said his early exit from the doubles with Jamie had no bearing on his campaign to win the singles. “It was a very tough loss. You’ve just got to take it, move on and try your best the next day. I certainly didn’t use it as fuel [for the singles].”
Asked again about Novak Djokovic’s shock defeat by Juan Martín del Potro, he said: “It was surprising. Del Potro is a great player when he’s fit. He hasn’t been fit the last few years and it was a brutal first-round draw. It was unfortunate for Novak that he came up against Juan Martín playing extremely well. That can happen when you have a 64 draw with 16 seeds.”
Meanwhile, speculation mounts about Djokovic ahead of the US Open. He has pulled out of the Cincinnati Masters without explanation and, having been in line for a calendar slam before losing early at Wimbledon, goes to New York at the end of the month underdone. The Scot struck first against Mónaco. He broke after eight minutes, the Argentinian dropping to his knees and clutching his lower back when wrong-footed by a sharp Murray forehand to the deuce corner. There was no damage – except to his ego.
Holding to love for 3-0, Murray was playing like a man keen to get out of the heat. They swapped breaks in the fifth and sixth games as the world No2 briefly lost focus against an opponent he has beaten three times out of five on the Tour.
Up 40-love in the seventh game, Murray double-faulted for a second time before holding and pressing on to take the set in 40 minutes with his fourth ace.
The match disintegrated as a contest within a quarter of an hour as Murray broke twice for 4-0, then forged on to the finish line without fuss.
Murray entertained the crowd by belting a few balls into the seats, about two-thirds of the 10,000 available being occupied. Much has been made of the tennis being a sellout; if so, there were quite a few people with tickets outside licking ice cream.
As he left the court Murray engaged in an extended chat with a young boy who had secured his autograph. The player explained: “I’d taken his pen, so he wanted it back – and I gave it to him.” In the long history of odd incidents in Murray’s life, that one does probably not make the top 20 – but he did give the pen back.
In the women’s event, Jo Konta beat Svetlana Kuznetsova, the eighth seed, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 in a struggle of constantly ebbing fortunes to reach the Olympic quarter-finals. The Russian saved match point in the ninth game of the third set and had Konta on the ropes again in the 11th game, before the British No1 held with an ace that kissed the line. Serving to stay in the tournament at 5-6 after three hours, Kuznetsova gave another two match points when she pushed a forehand wide. Again, Konta wasted the chances, also failing to put away a sitter at the net. They fought through four deuce points and another two match points before Konta steadied her nerves to finish the job with a forehand that forced a final wayward response from the Russian. It was not one of Konta’s most fluid performances but it was one of her most impressive in terms of persistence and nerve – at least at the very end.
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