NEW YORK: Andy Murray admitted to a slight case of first-match nerves as the Scottish fourth seed earned a 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 6-3 win on Wednesday over Indian Somdev Devvarman in the opening round of the US Open.
Murray, who lost the 2008 final at Flushing Meadows to Roger Federer, was only half joking when he said: “Try being a British player going into a Grand Slam, it’s not easy.
“There’s obviously pressure playing in these events to start with. It’s a match you’re expected to win.”
But with experience in three Grand Slam finals — albeit all defeats — nothing can particularly rattle the world number four.
“It was good to get the match out of the way,” said Murray, who dropped his serve in the opening game but recovered smoothly. “I played better as the match went on.”
Murray’s victory over the number 64 from India marked his 18th win in New York against six defeats.
His 44 unforced errors were almost balanced by his 41 winners in nearly two and a half hours.
“He really does take advantage of his opportunities,” Devvarman said. “Once he got ahead a break in the second, I felt he really took control of the match.”
Menwhile, Maria Sharapova avoided Wednesday’s cull of seeds at the US Open with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over pint-sized Belarusian Anastasiya Yakimova in a second round match which finished just past midnight.
Russian third seed Sharapova, the 2006 champion, compensated for her 23 unforced errors with 28 winners as she brushed aside her 84th-ranked opponent to set up a clash with Italian Flavia Pennetta for a last 16 place.
Sharapova needed just 70 minutes to defeat Yakimova who until this year had never won a match at the US Open. Her paltry return of just two winners illustrated the mismatch on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
In another match former champion Andy Roddick, who has not spent much time on the court this summer, got a good workout at the US Open on Wednesday in dispatching fellow American Michael Russell 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.
Roddick, the 2003 champion, has been battling back from an injury-plagued season, bothered first by a sore shoulder and more recently from an abdominal tear that have led him to fall out of the top 20 for the first time in 10 years.
Meanwhile, US teenager Christina McHale toppled eighth-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in straight sets on Wednesday to reach the third round of the US Open tennis championships.
McHale, a 19-year-old from New Jersey ranked 55 in the world, won 7-6 (7/2), 6-2 to reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time. She is playing in her eighth major.
“I’m so excited to have beaten a player like Marion, especially to have it happen here at the US Open,” McHale said. She defeated world number one Caroline Wozniacki earlier this year, but said the fact that this victory saw her make it to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time made it special. (Agencies)