Andy Murray played hardball in the baseball stadium on Friday night, as he got Great Britain off to the smoothest of starts in this intriguing Davis Cup tie.
At Petco Park, the home of the San Diego Padres, Murray demolished Donald Young of the USA in just 98 minutes: 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.
Murray had lost to Young before, in one of his spring slumps after the Australian Open, but there was little chance of a repeat here once he had found his feet on a slippery but slow-paced clay court.
The match was competitive for around five minutes, which was about as long as it took Murray to survive a tense opening service game that featured two deuces. After that, he cranked up his forehand and started playing some high-level tennis.
For a man who has never been comfortable on clay courts in the past, it was an encouraging display. Realistically, Great Britain's prospects of winning this tie depend on Murray being able to deliver three points – one of them with the help of Colin Fleming in today's doubles.
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26 Jan 2014It is thus crucial for Britain's greatest asset to conserve energy over the weekend, and yesterday he was magnificently economical. Young could not handle Murray's accuracy and authority, despite enthusiastic support from the 4,000-odd fans at Petco Park and pep talks from his team captain Jim Courier, whose natty grey suit made him resemble one of the Premier League's more elegant continental managers.
A left-hander ranked No. 79 in the world, Young is perhaps not best suited to playing on a surface as slow as this one. The USA have not hosted a home tie on clay for more than 20 years, but they had hoped to have John Isner – the world No. 13 and a proficient dirtballer – to lead their team.
Unfortunately Isner was ruled out by an ankle injury and they have ended up with Sam Querrey – who was due to face British No. 2 James Ward in the second match yesterday – plus the erratic and unpredictable Young. As a man who likes to come forward, and has more touch in his hands than power in his groundstrokes, Young would surely have preferred a slick hard court.
It is possible that Young could end up playing a decisive anchor leg in this tie on Sunday afternoon, when it will be his turn to face Ward. The Briton is ranked 96 places below him but he will have observed Young's tendency to throw in a duff game amid some bold stroke play. It took the
American until midway through the third set to even earn a break point, and then he was unable to convert.
Despite Murray's fine start, he and the British team have not been delighted with the quality of a court that was laid only a couple of weeks ago. Clay courts normally take at least a year to bed down, so creating one from scratch is never quite the same as going out to play at Monte Carlo or Roland Garros.
The top layer of granules is so loose that the ballboys were struggling to keep their footing. Murray and Young were much steadier, having spent the past week getting the hang of it, and indeed Murray moved – and slid – with impressive control and speed. But he did call the chair umpire, Henrik Molina, down to look at a dicey patch late in the first set.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer's surprise decision to play in Switzerland's first-round tie in Novi Sad, Serbia's second city, was rewarded yesterday with a straight-sets victory over Ilija Bozoljac. The only shame is that he will not be playing Novak Djokovic on Sunday, for the world No. 2 has opted for a skiing trip to his childhood home of Kopaonik instead.
It is not common to see Federer involved in the Davis Cup at this early stage of the season. Normally he leaves his old mate Stan Wawrinka in charge and rides in at the last gasp to head off relegation in the
September play-off. But Wawrinka's recent flowering must have encouraged him to think that Switzerland could lift the Cup this year for the first time in their history.
Andy Murray
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