Simply sumptuous

Murray delights in an encouraging day for the Brits

By Gerry Williams   Last updated: 27th June 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Simply sumptuous

Murray: Delights the crowd

Deft touches exploring different angles, subtle changes of pace - all that was missing was the long flanelled trousers.

Gerry Williams
Quotes of the week

My first waking thought this morning was this: can the thoroughly modern Wimbledon of 2008 possibly see a repeat of yesterday evening's old worldly classic in which Andy Murray overcame - beat would be far too ugly a word for such a classic - Fabrice Santoro of France?

It was quite simply sumptuous.

Deft touches exploring different angles, subtle changes of pace - all that was missing was the long flanelled trousers.

The ending of the match was courtesy itself. The gifted young student Murray and a soon-to-retire master of unorthodoxy both delighted in the fact that they had provided such delight for others.

By the way there was a new Brit who also popped up in the men's singles last night. His name is Chris Eaton and he is the lowest-ranked player in the whole field. He first had to come through three qualifiers to get here and that is quite a performance from the young man.

He opened up his first round-match against the Serbian Boris Pashanski with three aces and he finished it with 26 in all as he won in straight sets - sounds interesting.

Encouraging

All in all, Tuesday was a decent day for the Brits, one way or another. The 19-year-old Naomi Cavaday's performance against the champion Venus William was a seriously encouraging one.

We shouldn't just take this match in isolation because Cavaday wasn't just playing on any court, she was playing on the most famous court in the world. This, for an English girl, must have been on the same level as going to Buckingham Palace to visit the Queen.

She could have been simply overawed, but there was not a bit of that. Cavaday's brisk attacking left-handed forehand was quickly being spanked for winners.

Likewise she had no reservations on her two-handed backhand, hitting the ball like she was on a park court.

Staying with the Brits, and Anne Keothavong also came through in three sets. The British number one played a nervy and untidy opener against American Vania King.

They both began by hitting the ball like it was a good thing to do on the spur of the moment and there didn't seem to be any discernable theme. But before the end Keothavong's desire overcame her confusion and King rather fell away in the heat of the battle.

It would have been tasty for British tennis if the draw had given Keothavong a reasonable reward with a chance in the next round, but she will now face Cavaday's conqueror, Venus.

Mouthwatering

Today's Centre Court opener, between the third seed Novak Djokovic and Marat Safin, has extravagant possibilities and I am already licking my lips in anticipation.

It will all depend on Russia's Safin, whose range of performances was never more clearly demonstrated than at Melbourne Park. One year he was fined for barely trying, the next he actually won the Australian Open. He's that sort of person.

Djokovic is, in contrast, entirely reliable and is the third best player in the game. Yet for all that, with Safin across the net absolutely anything is possible.

But maybe not a repeart of the buttock-baring he once indulged in for the enjoyment - he thought - of the French! Not at Wimbledon, surely?

To watch Gerry's Day Two review on Sky Sports News click on the video icon on the right-hand side...

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Comments (1)

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Dorothy Angus says...

yes delighted with andy murray,s application yesterday, hope he keeps it up, also chris eaton, it will be wonderful to have a (scot) Brits going into the next round, what a filip for british tennis.

Posted 16:10 25th June 2008
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