Murray sweeps past Roitman with the minimum of fuss in New York

ANDY Murray could not have asked for a better start to his US Open campaign. After the disappointments of the Beijing Olympics, Scotland's finest was back in the winning groove with a straightforward 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 win over Sergio Roitman.

Murray was not at his best but he did not need to be. At this stage in the tournament he merely wants to get through the rounds as quickly as possible in order to keep as much fuel in the tank as possible. He can keep his more impressive tennis for later when the seeded players stray into his path – until then he just needs to take care of business.

The 29-year-old Roitman had never won a match at a grand slam tournament in 10 attempts and only made his debut here last year at the somewhat advanced aged of 28. He was soon on his way home after managing to win just eight games against Richard Gasquet. Then again, winning anything on a hard court has always been tricky for the Argentine and in his 12 years as a professional he had only won two matches on the cement. Against Murray, he showed no sign of improving on that record.

It did not take Murray long to work out Roitman's tactics. The Argentine has one shot of note – a thumping forehand – but not a lot else. From time to time, he would crack a winner off that side but, for the most part, everything he threw at Murray, Murray countered and bettered.

If he was drawn into a forehand battle, the Scot showed greater imagination and variety, not to mention muscle when the occasion called for it. If the Argentine steered the ball to Murray's backhand, he tended to pay a heavy price as Britain's No1 was guiding his that into the corners almost at will.

The only slight problem was Murray's first serve which stubbornly refused to land in play in the opening set. There were times when his figures dropped to a miserable 15 per cent accuracy but, luckily, it was only a temporary aberration. He may have muttered a few words of complaint under his breath at his inability to get the serve firing properly, but having broken Roitman's serve in the second game, he was always playing from a position of power.

Murray's serve may not have been at its sparkling best but the Argentine was never able to manufacture a break point until late on in the third set. Even then, he did not convert it.

The serving figures improved considerably in the second set while Murray began to ramp up the power on the other weapons in his game. He grabbed the advantage by breaking for a 3-2 lead with another backhand winner and marched on towards the third set with a purposeful gait.

By this time Roitman had run out of ideas and so opted for the direct approach – he drilled the ball straight at Murray using the tried and trusted theory "if you cannot beat them, hurt them". Murray turned away just in time but still yelped in pain as the ball thumped him on the back.

It was all good natured stuff – Roitman grinned broadly and apologised profusely in the hope of avoiding painful retaliation – while Murray simply got on with the business of breaking for an early lead.

This time, the damage to the Argentine's defences was terminal. Murray was too good, too strong and too experienced and Roitman offered up his serve yet again to give the Scot a 3-0 lead in the third set and the end was only minutes away.

Murray revealed that the Olympics were already a fading memory. "I'm feeling really confident just now regardless of what happened in Beijing," he said.

"I feel I'm hitting the ball well. I feel mentally strong and physically I'm not tired so I want to do well here and today was a good start."

Murray did admit to first-round jitters as he returned to competitive action for the first time since that Olympic defeat.

"I think before you get out on the court there is always maybe more nerves in the first round. Maybe by the second, third, fourth rounds, you get used to the court," he admitted.

"No one wants to go out in the first round but actually, once you get onto the court and you play sort of four, five, six games, you get more comfortable and you relax a little bit.

"I was lucky I got off to a good start and calmed down a little bit after that."

Murray revealed he had adopted a new approach to big tournaments and his work ethic away from the court was also paying dividends.

"I play for myself and I work really hard off the court to try and get the rewards in these tournaments," he insisted.

"In the past, I felt nervous coming into the bigger tournaments but now that I've started to work really hard off the court you go into the matches with sort of no excuses, no worries.

"You just go on the court and just to play tennis and that's one of the few things that I'm good at. It's worked out much better for me this year."

That change in approach, Murray felt, was evident at the beginning of the year in Qatar when he picked up his first title of the season in Doha.

"I spent about four or five weeks out in Florida training," he said.
"That means being away from your family for obviously that period of time when you could be at home training in really hot conditions and going in the gym a couple of times a day, it's a complete waste of time going on the court and finding reasons why you might lose the match and what have you.

"You just go out there and fight for every single point because that's a complete waste of time putting the work in if you're not going to use it out on the court.

"And it's really been the first time early this year when I felt really good going on the court physically and it's nice to sort of show that you're in great shape because I think it sends a message to the other players."

• Britain's other No 1, Anne Keothavong, notched up the first win in three years by any British woman at grand slam event other than Wimbledon when she beat Alexa Glatch 6-2, 6-2. Britain's last winner was Elena Baltacha at the Australian Open in 2005 when the Scot came through the qualifying competition and went on to reach the third round. It was the first time the world ranked 82nd Keothavong had claimed direct entry to the main draw of a major event other than Wimbledon.