Wednesday, 10 May 2017

Spanish favourites fall in Madrid

Day 4 of main draw action at the Madrid Open introduced world number one Andy Murray to the red clay of the Spanish capital for the first time in 2017.
Andy had few troubles dispatching Romanian wildcard Marius Copil in straight sets, winning 85% of points on his first serve throughout the match.

Armed with a first round bye, Murray now is facing a third round battle with French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert who dismissed Borna Coric in their second round clash.

Eighth and ninth seeds Dominic Thiem and David Goffin decisively joined Murray in the third round with victories over Jared Donaldson and Florian Mayer respectively.
Thiem is drawn to meet Murray in the quarter finals.

Home nation expectations were dealt early blows when five Spaniards bit the dust in first round encounters.
Winner in Estoril last week, Pablo Carreno Busta, fell to Frenchman Benoit Paire in two sets. 
Ivo Karlovic served 35 aces on the way to eliminating Roberto Bautista Agut in three tie break sets over three hours, where astonishingly no break of serve occurred in 36 games.
Argentine Diego Schwartzman continued his recent rich vein of form (quarter finals Monte Carlo, semi finals Istanbul) by trouncing Albert Ramos-Vinolas for the loss of just four games.
Popular veterans Fernando Verdasco and Tommy Robredo also lost, Verdasco to a red hot Sascha Zverev, and Robredo to compatriot Nicolas Almagro.

In women's second round matches, fourth seed Dominika Cibulkova was most disappointing in her loss to French qualifier Oceane Dodin.  22 cm taller than her opponent, Dodin served 8 aces and converted 5 of 8 break opportunities.  Cibulkova had 10 chances to break but only pounced on 2.
This was Dodin's biggest scalp of her career.

Other second round matches ended without too much surprise, although Roberta Vinci stretched third seed Simona Halep to the limit, a third set tie break enabling Halep to reach the third round.
There she will face 16th seed Samantha Stosur who has yet to drop a set in Madrid.

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