Murray overcomes Karlovic in first round of Japan Open 2012, Tomic out

Andy Murray and Dmitry Tursunov advanced into second round of 2012 Japan Open in Tokyo in straight sets.

Defending champion Murray was untroubled on his serve in the opening set, while 79th-ranked Ivo Karlovic defended three break balls before the tie-break. The tall Croatian hit 12 out of his 18 aces in the first set, but top-seeded British player was nonetheless more efficient with both his first (89-77%) and second serves (76-56%). The players wasted a set ball each by 7-7 in the thirteenth game before recent US Open champ grabbed the opener with his third mini-break. Murray was in a danger in the first game of the following set, but succeeded to get out of 15-40 and dropped only one point on his serve later in the set. Apart from aces he kept dominating the crucial statistic categories, yet the rivals were still tied at 4-4. Murray then pulled off his third consecutive love game and and generated a triple match ball in the subsequent game. Karlovic came back to 30-40, but was out of the tournament after the next rally. British Olympic hero Murray took the match with a 7-6 (7), 6-4 final result and is going to play Slovak Lacko in the second round.

39th-ranked Australian prospect Bernard Tomic was hoping to enter second round in Tokyo, yet his 117th-ranked opponent from Russia was up to his assignment. Although only 52% of Tursunov’s first serves were on target, he was highly efficient with them (91%) and also converted more than fifty percent of second serves as compared to Tomic’s 37%. Experienced Russian, owner of seven ATP trophies, broke ten years younger Tomic to love in the fifth game of the opener, overcame a break-ball threat some games later, and serve out the set after thirty-nine minutes. The second set was a head-to-head contest with both players holding their service games until 5-all. Tursunov then stepped up, converted a second break point in the eleventh game, and tucked the match away with the first match point for a 6-4, 7-5 victory. He is playing domestic player Ito next.

Tags Andy Murray ATP Japan Open Results Bernard Tomic Dmitry Tursunov ivo karlovic Murray beats Karlovic Tursunov beat Tomic