Murray breezes through as opponent Bolelli retires

ANDY Murray showed no signs of rustiness following his recent break from the game after making an impressive start to his Madrid Masters campaign.

Playing in his first competitive singles match yesterday since last month's Davis Cup tie, Murray was in scintillating form right from the off against Simone Bolelli and was cruising to victory at 6-0, 2-1 up when the Italian retired hurt.

Murray, who suffered a first-round defeat with brother Jamie in the doubles on Monday, admitted before the start of his singles campaign he was unsure what his form would be like after taking the last three weeks off.

However, the world No 1 answered any doubts with a clinical display against lucky loser Bolelli. The Scot could hardly have enjoyed a better start, sending down two aces in winning his first service game to love before immediately breaking Bolelli in a hard-fought second game.

When asked if he knew it was going to be his day after breaking Bolelli in such fashion early on, Murray said: "Not necessarily, but I think it makes a big difference in matches like that, when you are not really 100 per cent confident of how you are going to hit the ball or how you are going to play, because you've not played for a while and obviously he's had three matches here and is a bit more used to the court.

"You are still expected to win but when you get off to such a good start you can relax and go for your shots a bit more. This is very important for me, especially in matches where you are expected to win.

"There are a few nerves and the conditions here are tough not just because the ball flies around a bit more but just because the breathing is a bit different (at 660 metres above sea level]. There were a lot of things to take into account today so I was really happy with the way I served and moved."

Murray would go on to need just 30 minutes to win the opening set, creating eight break points and conceding none en route to the 6-0 win.

It looked to be an identical story in the second set as Murray held his serve and then fashioned two more break points in Bolelli's first service game.

Bolelli, who upset world No 17 Nicolas Almagro in the first round having only gained entry to the tournament after Marat Safin withdrew through injury, managed to stave off Murray on that occasion, but it was becoming clear he was struggling fitness-wise.

Having received treatment on his shoulder he then lost the third game of the set to Murray and was trailing 0-40 on his own serve before retiring from the match.

Murray admits he is not sure how Bolelli picked the injury up, saying: "He was hitting 220kph for a long time with his serves and 200 all the time. He seemed to be hitting his serve fine, so I don't know if he did it on one point in particular or whatever. I don't think he came on to the court with the problem."

The fourth seed will now face Marin Cilic in the third round after the Croatian dumped out 13th seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-2, 6-3 earlier in the day.

American James Blake, the 11th seed, joined Verdasco as a second-round loser after being bundled out by Frenchman Gilles Simon 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Finland's Jarkko Nieminen survived a fightback from Russia's Mikhail Youzhny in a first round match to win 7-5, 3-6, 6-2. Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber, France's Gael Monfils and Sweden's Robin Soderling all made it to the second round.

Rafael Nadal, the world No 1 from Spain, was due on court last night. The top seed was looking to see off Latvian Ernests Gulbis in the second-round clash.