|
By Spencer Musick
BEIJING, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Britain's Andy Murray overtook Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-2, 7-5 to enter the second round of the China Open here on Tuesday.
The number one seed in Beijing needed only 34 minutes to close out the first set, and although Seppi made him work for it a bit more in the second, Murray closed it out at 7-5 in just 52 minutes of play.
Murray was able to break Seppi's serve twice during the opening set.
In the second, things were more touch and go. Murray had to battle back from 2-0 down in order to seal the straight-sets victory.
Murray's attempt to fight back at Seppi was spurred by two double-faults that the Italian committed; one of those occurred on the point that clinched the match.
It's his eighth consecutive win against the Italian, and Murray said that Seppi tends to allow him chances during play.
"I feel like I'm able to get a lot of chances when he's serving. You know, give myself a lot of opportunities to break," he said.
Murray added that another key to combating Seppi is to vary his playing style.
"Then in the rallies, you know, I try and use a lot of variety, not give him the same ball twice in a row because he's got very good timing, hits the ball very clean off both sides. So try to use some variety, not let him get into a rhythm. That's worked well for me."
Murray also said that he sees no sign of his previous injuries in his performance.
"Well, I thought I did okay today considering I hadn't played much the last couple of weeks. I felt okay. Body felt fine. No injuries. Felt healthy. Just need matches now," he said.
Murray will face one of two Russian players in round two: Andrey Kuznetsov or Konstantin Kravchuk.
