Thursday, 7 August 2014

Tennis; Rogers Cup: Andy Murray beats Nick Kyrgios in 54 minutes

Andy Murray
Andy Murray needed less than an hour to beat Australia's Nick Kyrgios in the Briton's first match of the hard-court season at the Rogers Cup on Wednesday.

Murray, 27, had not played since his Wimbledon title defence ended in the quarter-finals last month.

But the British number one, handed a first-round bye in Toronto, looked sharp as he saw off Kyrgios 6-2 6-2.

Elsewhere, top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated France's Gael Monfils in three sets, 6-2 6-7 (4-7) 7-6.

Canada's world number six Milos Raonic beat America's Jack Sock 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-4) to keep home hopes alive while fellow top-10 players David Ferrer, Grigor Dimitrov and Tomas Berdych also went through.

The eighth-seeded Murray will face Richard Gasquet in the third round after the Frenchman defeated Croatia's Ivo Karlovic 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 6-3.

"I thought I did most things pretty solid," said Murray. "I didn't make too many errors. I moved well.

"It was a solid match for a first match back after about five weeks. I was happy."

The Scot lost only six service points and converted four of his five break-point chances as he dismantled Kyrgios in 54 minutes.

Kyrgios, 19, made headlines earlier this summer when he beat Rafael Nadal to reach the last eight at Wimbledon, and, like Murray, was contesting his first tournament since the All England Club.

He won his first-round contest against Santiago Giraldo 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 but was not allowed to get into his stride against Murray, a winner of the Canadian Masters event in both 2009 and 2010.

Nick Kyrgios
Kyrgios is up to number 70 in the world following his shock win over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in July

Murray's impressive display backed up his claim this week that he is now training at "100%" for the first time since the back operation he had last year.

Murray had surgery in September 2013 and was out for three months before returning in December.

The Briton is also focusing his energies on the US Open in New York, which begins on 25 August.

Murray hopes his training stint in Miami with new coach Amelie Mauresmo will help him finally regain full match fitness.

"I started to feel good, actually, just before the French Open," he said. "The back felt fine throughout the grass-court season.

"The only problem was before that I was able to practise but not train off the court, do the stuff in the gym that makes you physically strong.

"So when I was coming up against the better players, I was just lacking a little bit.

"But after Wimbledon, I went over to Miami and I really trained like I used to for the first time since the surgery and I felt much better."

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