INDIAN WELLS: Andy Murray has struggled on court in recent months but the Briton delivered a serving master class to beat David Goffin 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of Indian Wells on Wednesday.

The 36-year-old said late last month that he is likely to finish his career after the summer, though he hopes to get the chance to win a third Olympic gold medal at the Paris Games.

While he may never recover the kind of form that saw him win three Grand Slam titles, the former world number one, now ranked 61st, looked dangerous on centre court, beating the Belgian for an eighth consecutive time.

Murray, who will next meet Andrey Rublev, said getting his serve working well made all the difference.

“For me it was the serve,” said Murray, who won 85% of his first serve points and hit four aces. “That frees up a lot of the rest of my game. When you’re always having to fight and work for points on your own serve, you feel more under pressure but today I got a lot of free points off my serve.

“That freed me up in the return games and I was able to strike the ball well from the back of the court, defended well when I had to. An all-around solid performance.”

In other first round matches, Brandon Nakashima never faced a break point as he beat fellow American Christopher Eubanks 6-3, 7-6(3) to set up a meeting with Czech Jiri Lehecka.

“Playing a guy like Chris, who has a big game, big serve, I knew I just had to do my best to hold my serve and knew I was going to get opportunities on his serve,” Nakashima said.

“I think this surface favours me a little bit more. With the slower surface, the ball’s not coming at me as fast. But I’m happy with the way I played.”

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, who will benefit from a first-round bye, learned the name of his first opponent as Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi defeated Frenchman Luca van Assche 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/3).

Australians Thanasi Kokkinakis and Christopher O’Connell, Japan’s Taro Daniel, and Hungarian Fabian Marozsan were among the other players advancing to the second round of the Masters 1000 event in the California desert on Wednesday.

Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner, who followed up his Grand Slam trophy with a title in Rotterdam last month, will start his tournament against Thanasi Kokkinakis after the Australian defeated Marcus Giron 6-3, 7-5.

In the women’s draw, the back injury nightmare for 2021 tournament champion Paula Badosa continued, with the Spaniard withdrawing from her opening match against fellow wild card Ashlyn Krueger.

Lucky loser Nadia Podoroska will take the place of the 73rd-ranked Badosa, who did not compete after Wimbledon last season due to her injury.

Tennis mother Angelique Kerber, a finalist here five years ago, booked a second-round match with a fellow Grand Slam champion.

The 36-year-old German with three titles at the majors beat her first top 100 opponent since returning from maternity leave as she defeated Petra Martic 6-3, 6-4. Kerber now takes on 2017 Roland Garros Jelena Ostapenko.

Briton Katie Boulter, who won the WTA 500 San Diego title at the weekend, crashed out in the first round, falling 6-3, 6-2 to Italian Camila Giorgi.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2024