Wimbledon Day 1 - Murray Begins Title Defence

We all remember that day last year when Andy Murray made history by lifting the Wimbledon trophy on Centre Court, ending Britain’s 78 year wait for a male singles Champion.

350 days later the Brit faces a different pressure from the sort he came up against 12 months ago or at any previous Wimbledon for that matter. Only Murray himself will know if the task of defending his title is more daunting than claiming it in the first place. 

Murray received a warm reception from the Centre Court crowd

But if any nerves were expected from last year’s Champion they certainly didn’t show. Murray was in the same bullish mood which saw him carve through last year’s draw, as he opened the 2014 Championships with a 6-1 6-4 7-5 over Belgium’s David Goffin in a time of 2 hours 2 minutes.

It was an ideal match up for Murray whose early exit at the Aegon Championships just under two weeks ago came as an unexpected blip. Goffin, aged 23, is a player who after a promising junior career and a ranking as high as 42 has slipped down to 105 in the world. At times he played better than that however he was still far from a match for Murray.

A year ago it was eight time Grand Slam Champion Ivan Lendl who was the main attraction in Murray’s entourage. Twelve months on the calm Czech has moved on and in his place steps another major winner in Amélie Mauresmo, the Frenchwoman won both the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006 while holding the world number one ranking.

If there were any early doubts about the Murray/ Mauresmo partnership they were soon evaporated in the first set. The Brit broke his opponent’s serve in the second game and never looked like surrendering it back.

Murray’s combination of power and craft from the back of the court was too much for Goffin who showed flashes of his talent but in comparison to Murray was unarmed and simply didn’t have the weapons to trouble the defending Champion. A second break soon followed as Murray stormed to the opening set for the loss of a single game in just twenty-nine minutes.

The second set appeared to be going the same way, as Murray comfortable on his own serve, broke again to lead 2-1. However Goffin wasn’t going lie down as easily and at least made the score line competitive by holding serve, nevertheless it was too late to save the set from Murray’s clutches.

The Brit said after the match that “it was a very high standard”. That was to Goffin’s credit, in the third set the Belgian produced his best tennis of the contest, a memorable backhand passing shot was comfortably the highlight of his afternoon.    

Goffin’s attack was gathering momentum and Murray, who had been immaculate on serve, was forced to save two break points mid-way through the set. But once they had slipped through Goffin’s grasp it was business as usual for the defending champion as he made his move at 5-5 breaking the Belgian once more before serving out the match and finishing with an ace.

The only other British success on day one came in the Women’s draw from Naomi Broady who won her first ever match at a Grand Slam to beat Hungary's Timea Babos 2-6 7-6 (9-7) 6-0.

Elsewhere Johanna Konta lost 6-4 3-6 6-4 to China's Peng Shuai. While in the men’s draw there were first round defeats for James Ward, Dan Evans, Dan Cox and Kyle Edmund.