Andy Murray continued to make steady progress in the principality this week, with a 6-4 6-1 victory over Fillipo Volandri in the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters. The British number one was looking for back-to-back wins on clay, something which had eluded him on the main tour, and he succeeded with a solid but unspectacular performance against the Italian clay court specialist.

Murray had several opportunites to clinch the first set in rapid fashion, but a lack of concentration relinquished the break he had just gained, and allowed Volandri back in. However, the Scot sealed the first set by breaking serve in the tenth game, and with great relief, he trudged to his chair.

The momentum carried over to the second set, with Murray hitting with greater depth and consistency, as Volandri started to misfire on the backhand wing. After Murray saved a string of break points at 2-1, the outcome looked inevitable. The young Brit had to dig deep even in the last moments of the match, saving several break opportunities on his serve, before he clinched victory.

Murray will now face Novak Djokovic in an intriguing third round encounter, as he looks to rack up his first victory against the Serb.

Match statistics (1 image)


Murray looking forward to Djokovic challenge
Novak is number one in the ATP race and won the first Grand Slam of the year, so it's going to be tough.

He's had a great start to the year and he's playing very well.

He's expected to win the match but I hope I can go out and play like I've done in the last couple of days because if I do I've got a chance of winning.

He also pointed out that he hasn't had the oppertunity to show to his full potential on this very different surface yet.

I haven't had great results on clay but I've only played 11 or 12 matches on the tour, maybe less.

I've had a few injury problems on the clay but I got a good two weeks of practice before I got here and obviously getting the chance to work with someone like Alex has helped too.

I played well as a junior on clay and I won a lot of Futures tournaments on clay when I was 16 and 17 but it's just understanding how to beat the best clay-courters on this surface.

It's tough, you've got to grind out a lot of points.

Yup, he'll need to up it BIG TIME!

I felt he did really well today. Varied it up, hit the lines. His ground strokes were very good today and he constructed some very intelligent points. A couple of times he failed to finish them but the signs were all looking good. Serve working well.

True. But he mixed it up well and served smart on the big points. That's what I meant by serving well. I hadn't seen the stats I was just working off how it felt actually watching the match. I think that can sometimes give you a better feeling for how it's all working.

No doubt he'll have to pick it up loads against Djokovic tomorrow. But he played solid against Lopez, pushed up the level enough for Volandri today so I see no reason why he won't come out playing better still against Djokovic. He may still not play quite well enough but I'm sure he'll raise his game. Always does against the big guys.

Woop woop!  Well done Andy

hpefully he will play as good against Djokovic either