Andy Murrays place in the quarter final of the Australian open
was easier than expected, when his opponent Mikhail Kukushkin threw in the
towel after a very one sided affair. Murray was off court in under an hour,
racing through the first two sets with Kukushkin trailing 6-1 6-1 1-0 when he
decided to retire.
It was clear Kukushkin was low on fatigue off the back of two
five set matches and that showed when four errors gave Murray an early break. The
Kazakhstani was in unprecedented territory of the fourth round and couldn’t
hold serve in the whole match, as Murrays aggressive returning punished his wounded
opponent. Kukushkins only game in the first set came from a lapse in
concentration from Murray but this did not stop him prevailing to a 22 minutes
opening set.
This was only the second meeting between these two players the
other came in this year’s opening match in Brisbane where made Murray was made
to work for the 3 set win. However this one was no contest, as the second set
followed the first with Murray in control. Another careless service game from
Murray got Kukushkin on the board, when the Brit suffered a first serve
percentage drop but Murray was awarded the match in 50 minutes and is safely through
to the last eight. There he will play Kei Nishikori of Japan after he upset 6th
seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in five sets.
Meanwhile defending champion Novak Djokovic dropped his
first set of the tournament when he finally put out the last Aussie in the draw
ending Lleyton Hewitt’s run in four sets. Djokovic will now play David Ferrer
in the quarter final, the Spaniard a comfortable winner over Richard Gasquet.
In the women’s draw Serena Williams crashed out in straight sets to Ekaterina
Makarova of Russia missing out on a quarter final with Maria Sharapova.
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