Andy Murray Made To Battle In Los Angeles

Friday 30th July 2010 - 16:24:16

Andy Murray was made to battle in his opening match against American Tim Smyczek as he came through in a 6-1 4-6 6-2 at the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles.

Murray was playing in his first match since the straight sets defeat to Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon and it was his first match with out his coach Miles Maclagan, who he announced he had parted with earlier in the week.

Murray made a swift start as he broke Smyczek immediately to open up a 2-0 lead and the American couldn't live with the pace and power of the Scott.

Murray's serve seemed to be in full flow and Smyczek was unable to fashion a single break point, while being unable to hold onto his own serve.

He did manage to set a single game on the board to avoid the bagel set but it was one way traffic from Murray as he took the opener 6-1.

Into the second and the American upped his game and finally broke through the Murray serve to break in game four and open up a 3-1 lead.

But Murray broke back immediately, before going on to hold, to level the set at 3-3. But Smyczek didn't give up the fight as he broke again in eight to leave him just a single game from the set.

But Murray broke back for the second time to be behind 5-4 but he was unable to hold and was broken for a third time as the American levelled the match at a set a piece.

Despite his first serve percentage having plummeted at 42% in the second set Murray dug in to break Smyczek before holding to take a 2-1 lead.

He broke for a second time in the seventh game and wrapped up the match and will now face Alejandro Falla in the semi final.

Fella, who almost put Roger Federer out in the first round at Wimbledon, saw off fifth seed Ernests Gulbis 4-6 6-3 7-6 (10-8).

The other semi-final will see American James Blake, who put out Becker 7-5 7-6 (7-5), face Spaniard Feliciano Lopez  who came through 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 against Sela.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw