Murray through but acknowledges he must be ruthless under the roof
BRITISH No1 Andy Murray admits he’s still to acclimatise to life under the Wimbledon roof after overcoming a scare to defeat first round opponent Daniel Gimeno-Traver in four sets.
Rain meant no play was possible on the outside courts from 5.30pm onwards, but the £100m Centre Court roof ensured a raucous crowd were afforded the chance to roar on the home favourite upon the completion of Francesca Schiavone’s win over Jelena Dokic.
Murray (right), however, was unable to repay his supporters with the sort of stylish performance which characterised his victory at the AEGON championships a week ago.
Indeed, he gave significant cause for concern when he dropped the first set before regaining his composure and rattling off the next three to oust his Spanish opponent, ranked 59 in the world, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-0.
“He was hitting the ball very big and I did well to hang in there in the second set. The conditions are different. It’s only the second time in my life I’ve played on an indoor grass court,” said Murray, whose previous experience of such an environment came in the fourth round two years ago, when he and Stanislas Wawrinka set the record for the latest ever Wimbledon finish in a near five hour epic.
“It does change. There’s no wind or elements to contend with. It’s good conditions to play in and he was hitting the ball so cleanly at the start of the match but I did well.
“I’ve played against him before and I’ve practised with him and I’ve seen him play some great matches. He can be quite up and down but he started great. I was a little bit surprised he hasn’t had great results on the grass before.”
Elsewhere on the opening day world No1 Rafael Nadal got his title defence underway with a routine 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 victory over his tenacious but limited American opponent Michael Russell.
Last year’s runner-up Tomas Berdych started his campaign in impressive fashion as he wasted little time in crushing Filippo Volandri in straight sets 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 on Court One.
OUTSIDE COURT | WEATHER, GOSSIP AND TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
BRIT WATCH
It took just 64 minutes for the first Brit to fall by the wayside and even by homegrown standards, this was a pretty lame capitulation. Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm, the oldest player in the women’s draw at 40 years and 277 days, took just 17 minutes to claim the first set 6-0 against Katie O’Brien. The British No4, 15 years younger than her opponent, showed stereotypical pluck in the second which she eventually lost 7-5 to complete her miserable experience. Compatriot Dan Cox was trailing Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3 0-1 when rain stopped play.
JUST ZIP IT, VENUS
Wimbledon wouldn’t be the same without a daring fashion statement from one of the Williams sisters. With Serena not due to begin her defence until today, elder sibling Venus donned an adventurous baggy playsuit, so revealing that spectators on Court Two were made only too aware of the colour of her hotpants. Afterwards Williams clarified she’s “very into zippers” which are “very now”.
DAY TWO HIGHLIGHT
With the rain already causing a backlog, organisers will hope that John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, due to be the fourth match on Court Three take less than the 11 hours and five minutes in took to separate them in last year’s first round.