Andy Murray survives early scare against Simone Bolelli in second round – French Open 2011
Top Brit Andy Murray survived an early scare against Italian Simone Bolelli as he secured a straight, yet not so simple, sets victory to move ahead at the 2011 Roland Garros on Thursday, 26th May.
The Brit took almost three hours in securing a 7-6(3), 6-4, 7-5 victory against the Italian.
Appearing in only his fifth year here, Murray wishes to go a step further this time than his career best – the quarterfinal round. Moving closer towards his dream, Murray climbed yet another rung in the title ladder today as he
battled past the lower ranked Italian.
Comfortably holding his serve in the opener, Murray was first to make it onto the scoreboard. However, Bolelli was not far behind. Winning games on their serves, both players matched blow for blow as they managed to keep the score
tied for the first four games.
A lucky break for the Italian in the fifth game put him in the lead which he extended to 5-3 against the Brit. An easy first set win for the Italian was quite evident. However, a determined Murray bounced back in the tenth game
as he countered the Italian’s serve and tied the game at 5-5.
A further exchange of service games from the two forced the set into a tiebreaker. Rushing in an early lead, Murray led the tiebreaker 3-1, extending it to 4-2 minutes later before finally clinching the first set at 7-3 with a
well placed backhand winner down the line.
A hard fought battle with fruits of victory for the Brit as he now led the set score 1-0.
The second set was once again a close contest between the two professionals. Bolting to an early lead in the second set, Murray led 2-0 for a while before being broken in the fourth game to tie the score a 2-2. A double fault at
15-40 in the seventh game allowed Murray the coveted break he required. Consolidating on his serve, Murray led the score 5-3 before serving out the set successfully to clinch a 6-4 win for himself.
The third set followed somewhat on the same suit as the two players engaged in a neck-to-neck run to get ahead. A break of serve in the seventh game put Bolelli in the lead at 5-3, though Murray was quick to bounce back and return
the favour. Breaking Bolelli twice, the Brit put himself in a 6-5 lead before serving out the set to a 7-5 victory.
Murray moves on ahead to play local wildcard entrant Arnaud Clement or German Michael Berrer.
Tags: