Australian Open 2012: Murray Defeats Harrison To Move Into Second Round

Andy Murray began his campaign against Ryan Harrison and immediately went down under the exuberance of the nineteen year old American. He lost the first set 4-6. It was a wakeup call. He did not panic and it is to his credit that he continued playing his normal game. Chinks started appearing in the game of his opponent and Murray patiently took his chances. Both were playing similar style of game and therefore each game was going through a lot of rallies. The four sets took three hours and twelve minutes. In the first set, Murray looked like taking his task rather casually. He was not that fast and sometimes, was seen trying to reach a wide ball, where with his exceptional anticipation, he is accustomed to see the ball in the middle of his racquet. It was also in the final set that he started taking the opponents service games a bit casually once he was up 3-1 with a break.  He tried to keep the points short, win or lose. If Harrison got his game at love, Murray also significantly contributed to it. It also perhaps showed his confidence that he will be able to keep his serve intact. He did, though not always with comfortable margin. Harrison has a good second serve. It was clocking 175 kmph many a time. Murray was just blocking it to Harrison’s backhand utilising the server’s speed. In the end, it was a comfortable victory to the fourth seed, but unlike the other top three contenders whose matches were one sided in comparison. However, this was mainly due to the quality of the opponent. Ryan Harrison is considered a future top ten player. There was no shame in getting extended to that extent. Infact, if Murray was not extended, it would have been demoralising for the fans of Harrison. The final score line read 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-2 in Murray’s favour.