PARIS: Seventh seed Andy Murray outclassed Australia’s Marinko Matosevic 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 to reach the French Open third round on Thursday, conceding only seven games in a two-hour masterclass.
The pattern was set in the first game as Wimbledon champion Murray broke serve and he went on to dominate a player appearing in the second round of a grand slam for the first time.
Matosevic hung on grimly in the opening set and did have a chance to level when he was 0-40 ahead on Murray’s serve in the eighth game but he failed to take his chance and was never close to his opponent again.
Briton Murray, who missed last year’s French Open with a back injury, was broken for the first time when he served at 5-2 in the third set but hit back immediately with a love game to set up a clash with Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Bosnia-born Matosevic had defeated Dustin Brown in the first round to end a 12-match losing streak at the majors.
Meanwhile, David Ferrer and his Spanish compatriot Rafael Nadal also conceded just seven games on their way to straight sets victories.
Nadal handed out a bruising lesson to highly-rated Austrian Dominic Thiem as a 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 victory took the Spaniard into the third round.
Nadal, who sealed victory on his second match point, next faces Leonardo Mayer of Argentina, who beat Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Fifth-seeded Ferrer, last year’s runner-up to Nadal and No. 12 Richard Gasquet of France also advanced to the third round in straight sets.
Ferrer beat Italy’s Simone Bolelli 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 and Gasquet won 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-4 against Carlos Berlocq of Argentina.
Ferrer next faces No. 32 Andreas Seppi of Italy, while Murray faces No. 28 Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.
”It was a good serving performance today, especially when I was down in games,” Murray said. ”I returned very well (on) the second serve. I attacked it very well. My timing was there on forehand and backhand.”
Also, No. 14 Fabio Fognini of Italy beat Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (2); 19th-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa beat Axel Michon 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 and American Donald Young won 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-3 against No. 26 Feliciano Lopez.
In the women’s draw, fourth-seeded Simona Halep of Romania beat Britain’s Heather Watson 6-2, 6-4; No. 5 Petra Kvitova won 6-4, 6-4 against Marina Erakovic.
Sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic won 7-5, 6-0 against Japan’s Kurumi Nara, and No. 10 Sara Errani of Italy – a runner-up in 2012 – won 6-2, 6-4 against Germany’s Dinah Pfizenmaier.
Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic, who beat second-seeded Li Na – the former champion – in the first round, followed up with a 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3 win against American Alison Riske.
No. 15 Sloane Stephens of the United States; No. 23 Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, and former French Open champions Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia also advanced.
Kuznetsova faces Kvitova in the third round and Ivanovic plays Safarova.
Also through to the third round are: No. 22 Ekaterina Makarova; No. 28 Andrea Petkovic, Kiki Bertens, Julia Glushko and Pauline Parmentier. (Agencies)
