By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Andy Murray hit 31 winners against only five unforced errors sweeping Dustin Brown to reach the Wimbledon third round.
Photo credit: Ashley Western/CameraSport
Dustin Brown finally had Andy Murray right where he wanted him: As a target at net.
As Brown soared for a smash, Murray stood his ground.
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Standing inside the service box, the Wimbledon champion somehow reflexed a framed reply in self-defense that dribbled over, extending a point which ended with Brown netting a volley.
A smiling Brown shrugged at that rapid-fire entertaining exchange that gave the top seed another break and 5-2 second-set lead.
The lanky Brown scored some style points, but Murray countered with shrewd court craft in an authoritative 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory.
Murray scored his ninth consecutive Wimbledon victory rolling into the third round for the 12th time.
In an entertaining encounter, Murray played clean tennis throughout hitting 31 winners against only five unforced errors, including a near-pristine opening set in which he won 20 of 26 points played on his serve and hit 14 winners and just one unforced error.
The first British man since Bunny Austin in 1939 to hold the top seed at SW19 hasn’t looked even slightly stressed surrendering just 14 games in two tournament victories.
More importantly, the sore hip that pained Murray in his stunning Queen’s Club opening-round loss and during his SW19 practice week, has been a non-factor so far.
Though he walks as methodically as a man treading on bubble wrap between points, when the ball was in play Murray was flying around the court with vigor. A fast first-step and his skill reading Brown’s drop shots helped Murray convert five of 10 break point chances.
"Well, if he has a problem with his hip, I don't want to play against him when his hip is good," Brown said afterward. "Me personally, obviously there was speculation about it, you know, people saying he's not walking or whatever. You know, I hit a lot of drop shots in the beginning, tried to get him in to see how the hip is, pull him into the forehand.
"From my opinion, he doesn't really care about any of that stuff. He played really well. I guess that was the difference... the longer the match went on, and he felt a lot more comfortable in the beginning, just, you know, have to try and stay with him as long as possible. Once he got that break, it just become very difficult."
The two-time champion finished with a forehand volley slashing through a hold for a two-set lead after 66 minutes. Murray won five straight games to close out the second set and never looked back.
Two years ago, Brown rode his booming serve and audacious drop-shot fixation to stun Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon second round.
The rangy Murray was effective mixing his returns to repel the German's serve-and-volley efforts. Brown managed just five aces as Murray won 24 of 40 points played on the world No. 97's second serve.
Brown believes the reigning champion will get stronger as the tournament progresses.
"I think he played very well. I think the more matches he gets, the better he's going to feel and the more comfortable he's going to feel," Brown said. "He hasn't had as much grass matches as he probable normally would have with playing Queen's and winning it most of the time, then coming here.
"I think the deeper it goes, the more difficult it's going to be to beat him. I think Rog, playing his game and being aggressive and coming in, that would probably be the right way to do it. Like I said, I tried. The way he played today, I think it's only going to get better. I think it's going to be very difficult, hence why he won last year."
Outclassing the acrobatic Brown, Murray will face another superb shotmaker—Fabio Fognini—for a spot in the round of 16. The 28th-seeded Fognini has not dropped a set in reaching round three, including a 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-2, sweep of Jiri Vesely.
"Fognini is an incredible shot maker, but he's a slightly different sort of player to Dustin and (first-round opponent) Sasha Bublik," Murray said. "In my opinion, he plays certainly a more orthodox style of tennis. He's more solid but can play some incredible shots.
"I mean, certainly first two matches have been, you know, difficult to come up with game plans, because you don't know exactly how the two guys are going to play. I think against Fabio, although he's been a better player over the years than the twoguys I played first two matches, it's maybe easier to come up with a game plan because there will be a bit more structure and strategy in the match rather than just, you know, reacting and sort of more kind of instinctive points. So yeah, hopefully it will easier to prepare in that respect."
In their last meeting, Fognini fired some electric strikes befuddling Murray, 6-2, 6-4, on the red clay of Rome in May.
While the theatrical Italian enjoyed immense crowd support on Rome's red clay, he knows Murray will have a major home-court advantage on Wimbledon's grass.
"If I have to be honest, I think it's completely different play here," Fognini said. "I mean, I play home, so I play really good match. I was 6-2, 5-1 up. Other hand I won 6-4. I played a really good match on the night.
"Here it's completely different. Of course, it's Wimbledon. It's home for him. Is best-of-five. Something can change. Of course, he's the defending champion. So it's going to be really tough, for sure. He's the favorite. Nothing to say."
Fognini was the first man to rally from two sets down in a major to defeat Rafael Nadal at the US Open and hopes he can cause complications for Murray.
"I think I have the game to play against him, hopefully to play my best tennis another time, try to complicate his life on court," Fognini said. "If I have the chance, of course to get it."