Murray, Querrey strike blow for new tennis generation

MONTE CARLO—Britain’s Andy Murray and Sam Querrey of the United States struck a double blow for the new generation at the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday.
Murray, the 14th seed, buried the painful memory of his last visit to Monaco with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 win over Spain’s Feliciano Lopez while fellow 20-year-old Querrey stunned former French Open champion Carlos Moya, the 10th seeded Spaniard, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. It was 31-year-old Moya’s fourth successive opening round defeat here, a dismal record for a former world number one who was Monte Carlo champion in 1998.
Querrey, the world number 50 and the only American in the tournament, won his first career title in Las Vegas earlier this year and his giant 198cm (6ft 6ins) frame proved no hindrance on the clay courts where Moya was playing for the 12th time.
The Californian, making his debut here, now faces either Agustin Calleri of Argentina or Italy’s Andreas Seppi. Twelve months ago, Murray was forced to scratch from the singles after injuring his back playing doubles with brother Jamie.
But on Monday there were no such problems as the Briton, being coached during the claycourt season by former French Open runner-up Alex Corretja, booked a match-up with Italy’s Filippo Volandri.
A victory there would give Murray a possible third round clash with fellow young gun Novak Djokovic, the world number three and Australian Open champion. “It was a good start, I played well and didn’t make many mistakes,” said Murray.
“I spoke to Alex before the match and we said that we wanted to be patient and not make too many unforced errors. “Patience is the number one thing. If you do that well then hopefully the rest of the stuff will follow. It’s a different mindset on clay. You have to know when to go for your shots and when to stay back.”
Murray, with titles in Qatar and Marseille already in 2008, broke in the first and seventh games of the second set to lead 5-2 before Lopez rallied to cut the deficit to 5-4. Lopez saved one match point in the next game but then buried a forehand in the net to hand the Scot victory after 93 minutes on court.
Mario Ancic, who battled crippling glandular fever in 2007, also moved into the second round. The Croatian, a former top 10 player and Davis Cup winner, eased past Czech qualifier Ivo Minar 6-3, 6-4 to set-up a meeting with second seed Rafael Nadal, the triple champion here whose wins in 2005, 2006 and 2007 prefaced three French Open triumphs.—Agencies