ANDY Murray had a dig at his critics after cruising into the second round of the Hamburg Masters with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Dmitry Tursunov yesterday.
The win was only the British No1's fourth on clay this season following his second-round defeat by Stanislas Wawrinka in Rome last week. But he insists, after climbing back into the world's top 15 in yesterday morning's new ATP rankings, he is improv
ing on the surface and his progress is on track.
"I haven't played that many matches on clay so to expect me to play well every single week (is too much]," said Murray. "I lost a tough match against a tough guy last week and a bit too much was obviously made of it. I had chances in the second set and I didn't feel I played my best.
"I'm playing better on clay this year and I'm feeling a bit more confident. I'm sliding very well so hopefully I can have another good match tomorrow."
The 20-year-old added: "There's a lot of things I need to improve on, but I'm ranked 14 in the world and supposedly I've been having a very bad year so far.
"I think I've played pretty well and don't have any points to defend over the next few months so hopefully my ranking will get even higher, and hopefully I'll get back into the top ten very soon."
Murray's performance was a far cry from last year when he injured his wrist in the same event, putting him out of action for more than three months.
Tursunov is one of the most unpredictable players on the tour and a known hater of clay, and the variety in Murray's game kept him a step ahead throughout. The Scot gained the first break of serve in the third game and maintained that advantage to take the first set 6-4.
Russia's Tursunov held his serve at the start of the second set, but that proved to be his last moment of success as Murray rattled off six successive games.
Twice Tursunov was broken after leading 40-0, and an awful smash that flew several feet long settled the match in Murray's favour.
The 15th seed, who will face France's Gilles Simon in the second round, was pleased with the way he nullified Tursunov's game.
"Dmitry is a tough guy to play against because he's so unpredictable. He can hit some huge shots, but he can miss balls you don't expect him to, like the one on match point," Murray said. "I played really well today. I served well for most of the match, didn't get broken and I was happy with the way I played."
Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rallied to beat Nicolas Mahut 0-6, 7-6, 6-2 for his first win after coming back from a knee injury – and his first on the tour on clay. Tenth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny lost to Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-2, while 12th seed Juan Monaco advanced when Filippo Volandri retired with a knee injury when 6-1, 4-0 down.
Top-ranked Roger Federer and No2 Rafael Nadal had time to practice yesterday since the top eight seeded players have first-round byes. Federer has won the Hamburg event four times and his first victory came in 2002, when he broke into the top ten.
The full article contains 574 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
