By Chris Oddo | Wednesday, February 11th, 2015
Andy Murray opened his bid for a second Rotterdam title with a convincing straight-sets victory over Nicolas Mahut.
Photo Source: AP
Andy Murray set about the task of making his loss to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final a distant memory on Wednesday in Rotterdam, and he succeeded quite well with a dominant 6-3, 6-2 victory over Nicolas Mahut.
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The 2009 champion played a near perfect match against a difficult player to face on a fast hard court. He took control of a relatively tight match with a break in the sixth game of the first set, then held serve to close the first set, finishing with an ace down the T.
Things went considerably smoother for Murray in the second set as he reeled off the first five games and only gave up ground when serving for the match at 5-0. Mahut would break in that game, thanks to Murray double fault on break point, and then hold to draw a little closer, but Murray closed the match in the next game with a forehand winner.
Aside from the service break, Murray played convincing tennis from start to finish, executing many of his trademark acutely angled passes and running down Mahut's best offerings with aplomb.
The Scot finished with 36 winners against 16 unforced errors on the day, and he saved five of six break points in the 92-minute tussle.
Next up for Murray will be 24-year-old Canadian Vasek Pospisil in the second round.
Also advancing in early action on Wednesday in Rotterdam were Sergiy Stakhovsky, who put forth a dazzling display to dominate Dominic Thiem, 6-1, 6-3, and Andreas Seppi, who squeaked past Robin Haase, 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3.
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