Andy Murray brushed aside Jarkko Nieminen with a convincing 6-2, 6-4 victory after just one hour to book his place in round three of the London Olympics tennis competition.
It was a dominant serving performance from Britain’s number one who looked assured throughout, hitting six aces and 26 winners. The Finn looked nervous for the most part and perhaps still had the memory of his collapse from their last encounter in the French Open implanted firmly in his mind.
Jittery play from the Finnish number one gifted Murray the perfect start, as a double fault and a couple of loose errors saw the third seed break in the very first game.
The Brit was really looking to attack the second serve and an emphatic cross-court winner in the fifth game helped Murray to two more break points. He sealed the break with a comfortable volley to put himself firmly in control of this contest.
Read more (149 words)Murray faced break points in the next game, but his first serve helped him out of trouble and, just moments later, he wrapped up the first set with four consecutive big serves.
Murray was oozing confidence and broke Nieminen for a third time right at the start of the second set after a stunning rally, turning defence into attack with a big cross-court forehand, to the delight of the home support.
The world number four was now dominating this affair and was firing on both sides as he edged towards a place in the third round. After exactly one hour, Murray found himself serving for the match and he sealed victory with an ace to round off a very convincing performance.
Next up for Andy Murray is the popular Cypriot Marcus Baghdatis, who took Murray to four sets just three weeks ago in a memorable third-round encounter at Wimbledon.
