Andy Murray's Australian Open quest begins with short but sweet victory

There were only 45 minutes on the courtside clock when Andy Murray was shaking hands at the net and his Australian Open quest was off to a blissfully brief and successful start. The circumstances of it were not beneficial for tennis, as Andrei Pavel's ravaged back gave out and supporters were short changed but Murray, though sympathetic with his stricken opponent, was hiding his true feelings. This was a bonus he could not have expected.
After last year's horrendous start to the championship on the same Rod Laver Arena against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, a helping hand into the second round of the 2009 event was not to be refused. Pavel, the 34-year-old Romanian, had not played for 11 months, indeed his doctors first told him he would be mad to play again with his back in such a degenerative state. He chose to give it a go but clearly he could not hit the ball properly and, in retrospect, it would have been better had he not tried at all.
Murray won't mind that, especially on a day that was so warm that an unusual number of seagulls chose to spend their morning dozing in the shade on the banks of the River Yarra alongside which Melbourne Park was built. This was not an occasion for unnecessary flying around. It is a sensational with which Murray would concur and a 6-2, 3-1 victory was, thus, gratefully accepted.
These first round matches are to be won, and won with as little fuss as possible. Even if you come into the tournament with eight victories in ten days under your belt, beating Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Roddick in the process, a grand slam tournament is a different ball game altogether. Murray may not have been that thrilled to be scheduled to play first, an 11 oclock start with the sun directly over the courts, making the ball toss on the serve especially difficult. And the British No.1 has made a conscious decision these days to dispense with the peaked cap - he even used to go to bed in one - and yesterday some additional protection might have come in very useful. Two of his double faults, when facing into the sun, were comically bad.

As one would have anticipated, it took a while for the match to groove. The crowd had their hands full, with fans, water bottles, sunglasses and sunblock, and so applause at the odd good shot was muted, which lent the occasion an ambience more like LTA County Cup than a grand slam tournament. Murray did not want to over exert himself, he probably hit only half a dozen shots that could be described as top-class, he did all that he had to in the circumstances. Once Pavel was broken successively at 3-2 and 5-2, he was already feeling the small of his back.
The trainer was called for a rigorous massage at the start of the second set and though he held his first service game to love - as did Murray - when the Romanian was broken to love in the third and Murray held without concern, Pavel's next backhand into the net was his last contribution to proceedings.
Murray will next face Marcel Granollers, of Spain, in the second round. The Scot and the Spaniard, ranked 51, have never played against each other before.
source: the london times