The pulse began yesterday afternoon, without sufficient light to continue, and closed this afternoon with Andy Murray reeling the veteran Radek Stepanek, old fox, enjoying the landscape that the Scot gave.
Murray played with fire, who in the first fraction had lost two sets and the second was on the brink of the precipice, but finally corrected, corresponding to the status pointing him as one of the favorites for the scepter and beat the Czech 3-6, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 7-5.
To start the tournament, five sets and three hours and 41 minutes between chest and back for the British, who in the second round is presented with a compromise in which, presumably, he can take a breather. Against Mathias Bourgue, 164 of the world, but before he ran against a 37, who came from the previous and already playing for the sheer pleasure of playing, but still has his blood boil when carrying the racket.
Stepanek played a great match, but came to a foot, two points, to get the win. The match, suspended the previous day, resumed with two sets against Murray and 4-2 in his favor in the fourth. In the same line as the previous day, neither found nor conveyed the good performance from the player of Dunblane, which ultimately left the trouble with a lot of heart and a final burst of trade. “It was an extremely difficult match,” he admitted; “It was very competitive, very stressful. It is never easy to play for two days, so it was very hard.”
A much more peaceful engagement was the first encounter for number one Novak Djokovic. The Serbian got rid of Yen-Hsun Lu 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 in an hour and a half. He now expects the Belgian Steve Darcis, 161 of the world.
In addition to the premières of Nole and Murray, the day brought the Spaniards David Ferrer wins (6-1, 6-0, 6-2 to Evgeny Donskoy), Feliciano Lopez (6-4, 6-4, 3-6, Thomas Fabbiano 6-2), Roberto Bautista (6-3, 6-3, 6-1 Dmitry Tursunov), Pablo Carreno (7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 Federico Delbonis a) and Carla Suarez (6-2, 6-4, 6-2 to Katerina Siniakova).
