Mon. Sep 30th, 2024
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Andy Murray hits a return against Corentin Moutet at the US Open
Murray, who is ranked 37th in the world, won his first major title at the 2012 US Open
Venue: Flushing Meadows, New York Dates: 28 August-10 September
Coverage: Daily live text and radio commentaries across the BBC Sport website, app, BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra

Andy Murray was one of five British players to win their first-round matches on day two of the US Open.

Murray kept focus against combustible Frenchman Corentin Moutet to win 6-2 7-5 6-3 in an entertaining encounter.

Katie Boulter claimed a comfortable 6-4 6-0 victory over France’s Diane Parry before Cameron Norrie eased to a 6-3 6-2 6-2 win against Alexander Shevchenko.

Jack Draper beat Moldovan Radu Albot 6-1 6-4 6-3, while Dan Evans edged out Colombia’s Daniel Galan 6-4 6-2 7-5.

Jodie Burrage is looking to emulate Boulter by claiming her first US Open main-draw win in the women’s draw to complete a successful day in New York for British tennis.

On Monday, qualifier Lily Miyazaki reached the second round with her first win at a major – meaning the British players have not yet dropped a set between them.

“I’ve started everyone off really well and hopefully everyone can go out and do their best today,” Boulter said after earning the first British win of the day.

Katie Boulter 6-4 6-0 Diane Parry (Fra)
Cameron Norrie [16] 6-3 6-2 6-2 Alexander Shevchenko
Andy Murray 6-2 7-5 6-3 Corentin Moutet (Fra)
Jack Draper 6-1 6-4 6-3 Radu Albot (Mda)
Dan Evans [26] 6-4 6-2 7-5 Daniel Galan (Col)
Jodie Burrage v Anna Blinkova – under way on court nine

‘He always causes chaos’ – Murray happy to progress

Former world number one Murray showed all of his experience to come through a testing encounter against 72nd-ranked Moutet.

An abdominal injury left the 36-year-old coming into the final Grand Slam event of the season with less court time than he would have liked and he was pushed physically in humid conditions – as well as being challenged mentally.

Moutet likes to switch up his patterns of play in a bid to confuse opponents, but Murray was able to anticipate and reacted well to dominate the opening set.

Murray saved three set points to fight back from a break down in the second set, again closing it out strongly by winning four straight games.

His ability to frustrate his rivals was shown by the demonstrative Moutet smashing racquets and pretending to eat the ball as he showed his annoyance at not levelling the match.

Murray retained his composure despite everything that was happening in an action-packed encounter.

In the third set, Moutet took a tumble where he landed awkwardly on his left wrist, Murray seemed to be dealing with cramp himself and there was also the first use of VAR-style technology at a major for a double bounce.

“It was an amazing match,” said Murray, who clinched victory in just under three hours to become only the ninth man to win 200 Grand Slam matches.

“He is one of the most skilful players on the tour, he has so many different ways to disrupt you.

“He always causes a bit of chaos out there. I hope it was entertaining, there were a lot of fun points. I’m happy to get through because the second set was so tight.”

Murray will renew rivalries with Bulgarian 19th seed Grigor Dimitrov, who saved three match points before beating Slovakia’s Alex Molcan from two sets down, in the second round on Thursday.

Boulter looking to re-establish herself among world’s elite

Boulter climbed to a career-high ranking of 60th in the world earlier this month after a strong summer on the British grass where she won her first WTA title in Nottingham and reached the Wimbledon third round.

Those results enabled her to re-establish her place in the top 100, four years after dropping out because of stress fracture to her back.

After earning only her second major win outside of Wimbledon, she said: “I want to consolidate my ranking and really show that week in, week out I can play these girls and get a lot of wins against them.

“That’s what’s really going to build my confidence. I didn’t get the chance to do it before when I was inside 100 and I feel like I finally got my feet settled.

“Now is my time to really push on.”

Katie Boulter smiles during her US Open match
Boulter reached the Wimbledon third round earlier this year

The Briton needed a little bit of time to work out how to cope with 81st-ranked Parry, who is a former junior world number one and initially posed problems with her sliced backhand.

But Boulter remained patient and was quickly able to begin executing her forehand to devastating effect.

A single break was enough in the opening set before the world number 61, who hit 31 winners, raised her level in a one-sided second set.

Boulter will face Wang Yafan next after the Chinese world number 114 stunned French seventh seed Caroline Garcia 6-4 6-1.

Norrie returns to form in confident win

It has been a measure of Norrie’s success in recent seasons that four consecutive defeats, starting at Wimbledon and leaving him winless on the North American hard-court swing, provided concern.

Runs like that were rare as he climbed into the world’s top 10 and became a Grand Slam semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 2022.

Despite a particularly poor performance in Cincinnati, Norrie remained upbeat and showed why in a confident performance against 83rd-ranked Shevchenko.

The 28-year-old left-hander will play Taiwanese qualifier Hsu Yu-hsiou, who beat Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis, in the last 64.

Draper’s progress has been hampered by a shoulder injury, which ruled him out of Wimbledon and flared up again on his comeback last week in Winston-Salem.

The 21-year-old, who was ranked 38th at the start of the year, said he will be dealing with the issue “day by day” at Flushing Meadows.

There was little evidence of the problem in a rout of Moldova’s Albot and Draper goes on to face Polish 17th seed Hubert Hurkacz or Switzerland’s Marc-Andrea Husler.

British men’s number two Evans, who is seeded 26th, secured a routine victory over world number 71 Galan in a first meeting between the pair.

The 26th seed will now face Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp in the next round.

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