Murray defeats Kimmer Coppejans
By Phil Messenger for MurraysWorld.com on October 16, 2019, 06:36 pm
Andy Murray continued his comeback from hip surgery with a scrappy 6-4 7-6 (7-4) win in the first round of the European Open
The Brit started brightly, cruising to a 3-0 lead in the first set. Any thoughts of a quick victory were quickly banished when Murray coughed up three double faults to hand the break back. From then on Coppejans - a wild card with a world ranking of 158 - went toe to toe with former world number one.
A break in the 10th game was enough to seal the first set, before a tiebreak was required in the second.
Murray will meet eighth seed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay in the last 16.
The Brit started brightly, cruising to a 3-0 lead in the first set. Any thoughts of a quick victory were quickly banished when Murray coughed up three double faults to hand the break back. From then on Coppejans - a wild card with a world ranking of 158 - went toe to toe with former world number one.
A break in the 10th game was enough to seal the first set, before a tiebreak was required in the second.
Murray will meet eighth seed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay in the last 16.
add comment | 6 comments
Thanks for the report Phil. Agree it wasn't the best of matches, but feel that, due to his domestic circumstances, Andy's mind wasn't entirely focussed on his game, while Coppejans played reasonably well. Andy though could have done himself a favour by coming up to the net more and trying to shorten points rather than being content to engage in long rallies from what seemed to be his comfort zone behind the baseline. His first serve was AWOL for much of the time too which didn't help, although consistency in serving, as we all know, is not one of Andy's stronger attributes.
October 16, 2019, 07:13 pm
By Aileen
By Aileen
Thanks for the report boogers and Aileen for your input, Andy was not on his game at all, hopefully he will be better tomorrow.
October 16, 2019, 10:15 pm
By ChrisMac
By ChrisMac
He was probably jetlagged to hell, to be fair.
October 16, 2019, 11:27 pm
By boogers
By boogers
He was probably jetlagged to hell, to be fair.
I agree that jet-lag probably didn't help but I still don't think it was the whole reason for his scrappy performance. He should be fairly used to coping with this by now anyway, and it didn't seem to trouble him in Zhuhai despite the fact that he only arrived there a few days before the tournament started.
October 17, 2019, 12:22 am
By Aileen
By Aileen
Change of surface/conditions too. Our Andy is a sensitive flower.
October 17, 2019, 06:35 am
By blueberryhill
By blueberryhill
He sure is bbh, hope is arm isn't going to be a problem.
October 17, 2019, 08:41 am
By ChrisMac
By ChrisMac