Andy Murray made the most of his wildcard entry to the Cincinnati Masters with an opening-round 6-4, 6-4 triumph against Richard Gasquet.
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Andy Murray made the most of his wildcard entry to the Cincinnati Masters with an opening-round 6-4, 6-4 triumph against Richard Gasquet. The rain-delayed encounter at the ATP 1000 event marked a return for Murray after his withdrawal from singles event at the Tokyo Olympics with a thigh strain, although he did play in the doubles alongside Joe Salisbury.
Class is permanent ?
Some classic @andy_murray on break point…#CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/vK7LRWmM3x
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 17, 2021
The Scot sent down 14 aces, including 10 in just the first set, to Gasquet’s three as the pair battled in Cincinnati. The 34-year-old won the tournament in 2008 and 2011.
“I was able to step in and control a lot of the points,” Murray told the ATP website. “When I play like that, I create opportunities and can put a lot of pressure on my opponent.”
He will next face the winner out of ninth seed Hubert Hurkacz and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
On a humid night, the two-time champion finished with 38 winners, including 15 aces, to Gasquet’s 20 winners. He won 81 per cent of first-serve points to his opponent’s 61 per cent and committed 28 unforced errors.
“I thought I did well. I moved pretty well for my first singles match in a while on hard courts,” Murray said. “Certainly, a little bit more confidence in my movement than when I played him a couple of years ago. It was my first match [in 2019] I’d played since [I had] the metal hip in so I was a bit apprehensive.
“He uses all the angles on the court really well and makes you move a lot so you need to move well against him and I did that tonight. I served good. I got a lot of free points on my serve. Took control of the rallies when I had the opportunities so it was a good match.”
It was Murray who held the advantage in the pair’s ATP Head-to-Head. He improved on that to 9-4 when he broke Gasquet to secure victory after one hour and 50 minutes.
“The courts and the balls are pretty fast. Obviously playing in the evening slows it down a little bit but that was to my advantage,” Murray said. “He played with a lot of spin and during the day the ball gets up very high but he wasn’t able to get as high on me today so I was able to step in and control a lot of the points…
“It’s amazing. They were saying it’s the 16th year I’ve been here. I don’t think I’ve played any tournament more than that.”
