Clinical Murray arrives on world stage with Taylor-made success
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Your support makes all the difference.It is no doubt too early to suggest that it is time for Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski to move over, but Andrew Murray showed here yesterday that British tennis is no longer a two-man show.
Two days after winning his first match on the senior tour, the 18-year-old Scot confirmed his arrival on the big stage with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over the Californian Taylor Dent, the world No30, in the second round of the Stella Artois Championships.
Dent, a big-serving 24-year-old, is a formidable serve-and-volley player, while Murray has honed his game on the slow clay courts of Spain and prefers to rally from the back of the court.
The tactics worked perfectly here as last year's US Open junior champion won a series of key points with clever passing shots both down the line and across court. His backhand in particular was frequently crucial, while his clever use of the lob defied his inexperience.
Murray broke serve in the third game of the first set thanks to two glorious backhand winners and went on to serve out for the set. The break in the second set came in the sixth game after Murray came back from 15-40 down. The Scot finished in style, winning the set with an ace to earn a third-round match against the former Australian Open champion, Thomas Johansson.
Rusedski is also through to the third round after an impressive victory over Russia's Dmitry Tursunov proved that the British No2 is still a force to be reckoned with on his favourite surface.
Having disposed of fellow countryman Josh Goodall in the first round, Rusedski showed that his grasscourt game is in good shape as he won a second match in succession for the first time this year by beating Tursunov, a 22-year-old of no mean ability, in three sets, 6-1, 6-7, 6-4.
Rusedski missed some drop shots, occasionally looked vulnerable on the backhand and served too many double faults into the forehand court. But for the most part his play was sound and Tursunov was unable to handle either his serve or his chip-and-charge game.
The British No 5, Jamie Delgado, who had accounted for Gael Monfils in the first round, found the challenge of a second precocious French youngster too much. Richard Gasquet, who counts Roger Federer among his victims this year, won 6-4, 6-1, after which Delgado rushed across London to play in the Lawn Tennis Association's Wimbledon wild card play-off at Raynes Park.
Andy Roddick, the No 2 seed behind Lleyton Hewitt, began his attempt to record a hat-trick of victories at Queen's by beating Mark Philippoussis, 6-2, 6-4.
Roddick and Philippoussis have lost the last two Wimbledon finals to Federer, but on this evidence that is just about all they have in common.
Roddick, who has had some injury worries and lost in the second round of the French Open, had too much firepower for the Australian and won in under an hour.
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