Murray Through But Henman Out
Brtitain’s number one Andy Murray cpmpletely outplayed Alessio Di Mauro beating him 6-0 6-1 6-1 to reach the third round of the US Open.
The 19-year-old Scot is Britain’s sole survivor at Flushing Meadows after Tim Henman’s exit earlier to Roger Federer.
The 17th seed took just one hour and 14 minutes to wrap up a thoroughly one-sided victory.
Murray, for whom the third round in New York is new territory, now plays 10th seed Fernando Gonzalez.
He lost just seven points in a first set that lasted 19 minutes against left-hander Di Mauro, who looked out of his depth.
Things did not get much better for the Italian, now ranked 75 places below Murray, in the second and third sets.
“I wanted to beat him after I lost pretty badly against him last time we played,” admitted Murray, who was more than satisfied with his performance on the Grandstand court.
“I didn’t really do anything wrong. I played maybe one bad game in the third set. I think it was 30-0 up on his serve when he held maybe, but apart from that it was pretty good.”
Murray is under no illusions that playing Gonzalez in the next round will be a much tougher task.
“He’s had a really, really good summer. He made semis in LA, semis in Toronto, semis in Cincinnati, and he’s won his first two matches comfortably here,” said the teenager.
“It’s not a match that I’m expected to win. It’s just supposed to be a close match.”
Henman lost again to world number one Roger Federer 6-3 6-4 7-5.
Henman did manage to break Federer’s serve in the second set but the Swiss player never looked vulnerable.
Top seed Federer, who has not lost a set so far, now faces either American Vince Spadea.
Despite committing 38 unforced errors, unseeded Henman played well but was no match for the Wimbledon champion.
Federer broke Henman in the second game of the match and pressurised the Briton’s serve throughout the first set.
In the second set, Federer grabbed a 5-2 advantage before Henman scored his only break of the match to trim the lead to 5-3.
He could not capitalise, however, and Federer served out the set.
Henman, 31, improved his play in the final set but a loose service game allowed Federer to take a 6-5 lead before the Swiss served out the two-hour, two-minute match to love.
The Briton admitted that his poor start to the match gave Federer an immediate initiative.
“You can’t really afford to give him the start I did because he’s got enough confidence and he’s playing at such a high level, he certainly doesn’t need any help from me,” said Henman, who was nevertheless upbeat about his own performance.
“I might have lost today but in actual fact the way I felt on court in certain instances, the way I was playing, there’s some positive stuff in there.”
“While I still have this mentality and I’m enjoying the challenge then I’m going to keep playing and have some fun.”
Federer said: “The conditions were tough today, breezy, chilly. Henman was trying to kind of break the rhythm, as usual.”
“So it makes it hard to really play well and get the good rhythm going. I think it could have been easier, but it could also been tougher.”
