By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday January 3, 2017
Andy Murray extended his winning streak to 25 matches with a 6-0, 7-6 (2) victory over Jeremy Chardy.
Photo credit: Naseem Zeitoon/Reuters
Newly-knighted Andy Murray was up to his old tricks in Doha.
Murray ended 2016 as the youngest man to achieve modern knighthood. He opened the new season streaking to a familiar finish under the lights.
The world No. 1 won six straight points sealing a 6-0, 7-6 (2) conquest of Jeremy Chardy in Doha for his 25th consecutive victory.
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It was Murray’s ninth win in 10 meetings with the Frenchman.
Murray closed 2016 on a 24-match run, including dethroning the four-time defending champion Novak Djokovic, 6-3, 6-4, capturing his first ATP World Tour Finals championship and securing his spot in history as the year-end world No. 1 in London last November.
http://www.tennisnow.com/News/2016/november/Murray-Dethrones-Djokovic-Wins-WTF,-Year-End-No-1.aspx In constrast to defending Doha champion Djokovic, who stumbled into a 1-5 hole before finding his range to beat Jan-Lennard Struff yesterday, Murray burst out of the blocks quickly.
The top seed served 87 percent and dropped just three points on serve cruising through an opening set in which Chardy served just 44 percent and won only four points on serve.
The pair traded breaks in the second set.
In the tie break, Murray slid his sixth ace for a 3-2 lead. The top seed scored successive mini breaks to stretch the lead to 5-2.
Murray closed the one hour, 21-minute match on a six-point run.
A two-time Doha champion (2008 and 2009), Murray raised his Doha record to 16-2 and greeted a long-time fan on his walk off.
The 29-year-old Scot faces Gerald Melzer next. The 68th-ranked Melzer rallied past veteran Paul-Henri Mathieu, 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-2.
No. 5-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Andrey Kuznetsov, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2. Tsonga meets drop-shot artist Dustin Brown next.
Sixth-seeded Ivo Karlovic squeezed out a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (0) win over Illya Marchenko. Seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber dispatched Malek Jaziri, 6-2, 7-6 (3) and will play Nicolas Almagro in a battle of brilliant one-handed backhands.