BreakDancer
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MURREY THRASHES MALISSE
Wimbledon - Classy Murray moves into third round
Eurosport - Thu, 26 Jun 19:16:00 2008
Andy Murray eased into the third round at Wimbledon with a 6-4 6-2 6-2 victory over 2002 semi-finalist Xavier Malisse of Belgium.
Murray looked in determined mood from the start, allying some glorious strokes with his trademark nonchalance, and after almost breaking his opponent in the second game he secured the break of serve in the fifth when Malisse dragged a backhand into the net.
Murray looked unbeatable behind his own serve, and the first set duly arrived in just over half an hour.
A raking backhand winner from the Scot enabled him to break Malisse in the opening game of the second set, and he secured a double break when a clearly frustrated Malisse followed up a double fault with a netted forehand in the third game.
There was an ease to Murray's play suggestive of a player on top of his game. He built up a 4-0 second-set lead before unexpectedly allowing Malisse to break him and close the gap to 4-2, but Murray responded by breaking straight back in the seventh game and taking the set by six games to two.
Murray caught Malisse cold again and broke early in the third set, before saving a break point in the following game with a brave backhand volley.
Malisse threatened to close the gap on Murray by bringing up a break point at 3-2 down, but Murray saved it with an ace and moved 4-2 ahead thanks to an emphatic forehand volley.
He turned on the style in the final two games of the match, producing some marvellous shots to take the third set 6-2 and seal his passage to round three, where he will face former world number three Tommy Haas.
It was a good day for the Murray family with Andy's brother Jamie and partner Max Mirnyi winning their opening match in the doubles 7-6 (4) 7-6 (5) 6-3 over Marc Gicquel and Fabrice Santoro.
However, two other pairings, Neil Bamford and Joshua Goodall; and Alex Bogdanovic and Jonathan Marray; were both dumped out.
A miserable Wimbledon for Bogdanovic was then completed when he lost with partner Melaine South in the mixed doubles to Yves Allegro and Agnes Szavay.
In the women's doubles it was a similarly disappointing story as Anna Smith and Georgie Stoop; and Elena Baltacha and Naomi Cavaday; both suffered first round defeats.
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