Murray Battles Past Berankis

When Andy Murray appointed Ivan Lendl as his new coach a year ago it seemed like a partnership going one of two ways. An instant backlash leaving both parties none the wiser or an extraordinary success story of Murray’s long-awaited maiden Grand Slam.   

There’s no question that after Murray’s triumph at Olympics and US Open that Lendl has been the missing piece in a complex jigsaw. Even away from the court the British number one seems a more upbeat likable character expressing his humour which previously seemed hidden.

Murray comfortably through to the second week 

It remains to be seen if the Scot’s breakthrough year will result in even better things to come but it appears that the calm Czech has unlocked the real Andy Murray and it’s clear to see his achievements have gained him a lot of fans over the last 12 months.

Now we are back at the first slam of the year, the Australian Open, where the Murray Lendl relationship began. The passage through to the first week has been rather straight forward; Robin Haase and Joao Sousa were both dispatched with ease in the opening rounds.

Today came a sterner test, as Murray faced Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis a former US open junior champion. Don’t been fooled by the low ranking of Berankis which has been largely down to injury, for the first time in the in the tournament Murray had a battle on his hands. But even short of his best the Brit produced his best tennis at the key moments securing a place in the last 16 with a 6-3 6-4 7-5 victory.

At the start of the match it was one way traffic, as Murray broke in the second game without really having to force the play. Murray’s ability to pull away from opponents, even when not on top of his game saw him race into a 5-1 lead, as errors flew off Berankis’s racket.

However the Lithuanian showed glimpses of talent and variety of shots to steal a break back but it came too late to rescue the set. Murray still had gears to go through, his serve not as dominant as in the previous rounds nevertheless the set was sealed in 39 minutes.

A much improved Berankis started the second set, his flat hitting troubling Murray who wasn’t dictating as he would have liked. Now it was only the Brit’s serve preventing Berankis from breaking but eventfully the pressure paid-off in the sixth game, when Berankis clinched the break gaining momentum to take a 4-2 lead.

That triggered a reaction from Murray who immediately applied some pressure of his own, taking no time in retrieving the break. Now with a good rhythm on serve Murray levelled the set at 4-4 before taking a second successive break, controlling more of the points and looking more engaged in the match.

After serving out the set Murray landed another blow on Berankis in the third game of set three. Murray was given increasing chances at his opponent’s second serve allowing the Brit to get on top of the rallies and break seizing full authority.

Berankis could have fell away at that point, but the Lithuanian clearly thriving on the occasion dug deep to remain in touching distance. The best tennis of the match followed, as both players serving well, stepped up the court producing an entertaining offensive game.

The gap remained a single break until Murray was forced to serve out the match at 5-4 when a combination of the Brit’s errors and inspired play from Berankis levelled the score causing a possibility of an unpredictable tiebreak.

But Murray again responded defending well wearing down Berankis, snatching back his break advantage. On his second attempt Murray wrapped up the match in a total of 2hours 12 minutes.

Murray later said, “we know each other quite well we practise a lot together he hits the ball very flat which was pretty quick in these conditions.”  Murray will now face either Gilles Simon or Gael Monfils in the last 16.

In the Women’s draw the other British interest Laura Robson wasn’t able to back up her brilliant victory over Petra Kvitova going out to American Sloane Stephens 7-5 6-3.