Tennis: Murray on song in clay start

Scot working on French Open triumph.

MONTE CARLO: Andy Murray sprang to life as he began his clay-court season with a 6-0, 6-3 hammering of Serb Viktor Troicki to reach the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters.

He was joined by 13th seed Fernando Verdasco as the Spaniard beat Ivan Dodig of Croatia 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Under the watchful eye of coach Ivan Lendl, third seed Murray was ruthless in his demolition of Troicki, who gave him a brief fright on clay at last year’s French Open.

“The goal is Paris, that’s what we are working on now,” said Murray. “Usually it takes me a few matches to get comfortable on clay. Today was a really good start.”

Murray, who said he was feeling increasingly comfortable on clay, showed poise as he put behind him his finals loss at the Miami Masters just over a fortnight ago to Novak Djokovic, the Serbian who is top seed in the principality.

Defeat put Troicki deeper into a hole against elite opponents — he has now lost his last 24 matches against top 10 players.

Meanwhile, in first-round action, Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan upset German 14th-seed Florian Mayer 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 while Fabio Fognini, one of six Italians on court on the day, knocked out Michael Llodra of France 7-5, 6-3. Italy’s Filippo Volandri dispatched inexperienced compatriot Alessandro Giannessi 7-5, 6-3 and was joined by countrymen Andreas Seppi and Potito Starace.

Portugal’s Frederic Gil beat Russian Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-3 while Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci put out South African Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4.

Aisam crashes out

Aisamul Haq Qureshi’s fortunes failed to improve on the tennis court after the Pakistan and his doubles partner Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands crashed out of the Monte-Carlo Masters with a 6-4, 6-4 first-round defeat at the hands of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez.

This was Aisam’s first tournament after pulling out of Pakistan’s Davis Cup tie against the Philippines due to injury. The Pakistani needs to be ranked in the top-10 in order to have a chance of representing the country at the London Olympics.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2012.