London: When a 19-stroke exchange ended with Andy Murray's
Wimbledon opponent slapping a forehand into the net, thousands of Centre
Court spectators rose in unison.
They applauded Murray's first service break. They screamed for
joy. They waved their Union Jacks and Scottish flags. It was only a
third-round match, merely 12 minutes and three games old, yet to some
that tiny early edge seemed massively meaningful.
So imagine the reaction, louder and livelier, when the
second-seeded Murray finished off his 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 victory over
32nd-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain less than two hours later Friday to
advance to Week 2. And then, for a moment, try to fathom what would
happen if Murray ever were to win the final point of The Championships,
as the Grand Slam tournament is known around here, and become the first
British man in 77 years to hoist the trophy.
The second seed defeated Tommy Robredo 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 to enter the last-16 at Wimbledon.
"You need to be professional enough to not let that stuff bother you
and just concentrate on each match," said Murray, who has won 20 of his
past 21 contests on grass, including runs to last year's final at the
All England Club and a London Olympics gold medal. "I did a good job of
that today (Friday). I played well. My best match of the tournament, so
far."
The locals' hopes that Murray will follow up his 2012 US Open
victory with another major title, this time at Wimbledon, only increased
in the aftermath of surprisingly early losses this week by seven-time
champion Roger Federer, two-time winner Rafael Nadal and two-time
semi-finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
All were seeded in the top six, and all were on Murray's half of
the draw. Their departures mean the most daunting obstacle in Murray's
path - until a potential final against No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic,
anyway - might very well be surging expectations.
"There's a lot more pressure on me now, with them being out,"
Murray acknowledged after compiling 40 winners and only 14 unforced
errors against Robredo, taking advantage of the zero-wind conditions
under the closed retractable roof.
"I mean, I don't read the papers and stuff. But there are papers
in the locker room," Murray continued with a chuckle. "So you see some
of the headlines and stuff. It's not that helpful."
Nadal's stunning first-round exit, for example, was viewed mainly
through the prism of how that result helped Murray, who could have
faced the 12-time major champion in the semifinals. "Adios Rafa. Hello
Andy. Wimbledon dreams again," read a headline in The Times of London.
The Daily Mail's take: "Great start for Andy - Rafa's out."
All in all, then, Friday was a perfectly British day, and not
simply because Murray won his third straight-set match in a row. The
lone other remaining singles player from the host country, 19-year-old
Laura Robson, made her way into the third round at Wimbledon for the
first time, defeating 117th-ranked qualifier Mariana Duque-Marino of
Colombia 6-4, 6-1.
That match, like Murray's, was played with the Centre Court
covered because of rain that played havoc with the schedule, and Robson
heard her share of rowdy support, too. She also was serenaded with the
"Awwwwwww" that often accompanies a mistake by a player the crowd really
cares about.
"I love when people get involved," Robson said. "Sometimes they
do, like, a massive groan if I hit a double-fault, but I'm doing it as
well. So, yeah, we're just living it together."
A few hours after Robson's match ended, putting her in
Wimbledon's third round for the first time, a bookmaker sent out a
release noting that her odds of winning the tournament went from 80-1 to
33-1.
Robson eliminated 10th-seeded Maria Kirilenko in the first round,
part of a wild first week. All told, four top-10 men (each on Murray's
half, coincidentally) and six top-10 women lost already, equalling the
worst performance by the highest seeds at any Grand Slam tournament in
the 45-year history of the Open era.
Speaking about the anyone-can-beat-anyone feel, 37th-ranked
Jurgen Melzer of Austria said: "There has been so much talk about it,
you cannot ignore it."
He did manage to put a stop to it, however, at least as far as
Sergiy Stakhovsky was concerned. Two days after serving-and-volleying
his way past defending champion Federer, Stakhovsky played like a guy
ranked 116th, losing 6-2, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 to Melzer.
"I think," Stakhovsky said, "I just played stupid."
It's a common sight at major tournaments: An unknown player
knocks out a big name, then fails to follow it up with another victory.
The same thing happened to 66th-ranked Eugenie Bouchard of
Canada, who went from beating 12th-seeded Ana Ivanovic, the 2008 French
Open titlist, on Wednesday to losing to No. 19 Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5,
6-2 on Friday. And 131st-ranked qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito of
Portugal, who eliminated four-time major champion Maria Sharapova in the
second round, then bowed out 7-5, 6-2 against 104th-ranked Karin Knapp
of Italy in the third.
"That was a huge win for me," Larcher de Brito said. "But it was tough for me to hang in there today (Friday)."
Among Friday's noteworthy results: Grega Zemlja became the first
Slovenian man to reach Wimbledon's third round by edging No. 29 Grigor
Dimitrov 11-9 in the fifth set of a match suspended by rain Thursday
night and interrupted again Friday; No. 24 Jerzy Janowicz's serves
reached 140 mph and he delivered 30 aces in a straight-set victory over
No. 15 Nicolas Almagro; No. 4 David Ferrer, the runner-up to Nadal at
the French Open, also won, as did 35-year-old Tommy Haas.
In women's play, wild-card entry Alison Riske gave the US a
fourth woman in the round of 32 - no American men made it that far for
the first time in 101 years - and plays Saturday against Kaia Kanepi of
Estonia, who defeated No. 7 Angelique Kerber 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3.
Riske joins countrywomen Serena Williams, the defending champion;
No. 17 Sloane Stephens; and Madison Keys. Stephens' third-round match
against Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic was suspended Friday night
because of fading light after they split the first two sets. Two other
matches were halted in progress, one with 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra
Kvitova trailing No. 25 Ekaterina Makarova 2-1 in the third set.
Showers delayed play on a start-and-stop day, and four scheduled men's matches never even got going.
Even though he was able to face Robredo thanks only to the roof that was installed in 2009, Murray said he's not a big fan.
"It's an outdoor tournament," Murray said. "It's better if we get to play outside."
That said, he likes the way the indoor conditions allow him to
swing away, and Murray was on-target throughout - with his serves, his
returns, his volleys, his groundstrokes. He won 60 of 80 points on his
serve, including 14 of 15 in one stretch. He broke Robredo four straight
times, then again in the next-to-last game.
Robredo, mind you, is no slouch. He's been ranked as high as No.
5, albeit back in 2006. He's been a major quarter-finalist a half-dozen
times. At this year's French Open, he became the first man in 86 years
to erase two-set deficits in three consecutive Grand Slam matches. And
he entered Friday with a 2-2 record against Murray in tour-level events.
But they hadn't played in an official tournament since 2009, and
they'd never met on grass or at a major, two categories where Murray is
excelling lately.
After lingering on court to sign autographs - one excited boy
hugged an oversized tennis ball adorned with his man's signature as
though it were the most precious thing he'd ever held - Murray was asked
whether last year's success at the Summer Games and Flushing Meadows
alleviated Britain's intense desire for him to win it all at the All
England Club.
"Uh, no, from what I've heard," he replied. "People are putting
even more pressure on me because of the nature of how the draw's worked
out. I've just got to try and stay focused, not worry about that stuff.
But it's hard."
