ANDY Murray will play Mario Ancic in the second round of the Barcelona Open.
The Scot, who climbed one place to 19th in the world rankings announced yesterday, had a bye, but Ancic set up the tie with a 6-1, 6-0 demolition of Mischa Zverev. The pair have met three times – all on hard courts – with the Croatian holding a 2-1
lead.
On their last meeting in the Masters Series in Miami at the end of March, the British No1 squandered two match points before Ancic won the second-round match on a tie-break in the third set.
Murray had won the previous encounter in February when his straight-sets victory saw him lift the Open 13 title in Marseille.
The Dunblane player accepted a wildcard to the Spanish tournament as he looks to build up his form on clay before the French Open, and last week achieved his best result on the surface when he reached the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters, only to be soundly beaten by the world No3 Novak Djokovic.
Murray is expected to make further progress towards his goal of becoming a top-five player over the coming months as he has no ranking points to defend between May and August.
The Scot, 20, missed almost three months of last season with a serious wrist injury which ruled him out of both the French Open and Wimbledon.
The full article contains 245 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
