Andy Murray cruised into the third round at Wimbledon with a straight sets win over Jarkko Nieminen on Thursday.
British number one puts in dominant display for monarch
Andy Murray cruised into the third round at Wimbledon with a straight sets win over Jarkko Nieminen on Thursday.
Watched by the Queen, on her first visit to the All England club sine 1977, the British fourth seed took under two hours to defeat the Finn 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
After acknowledging the monarch's presence with a brief bow to the royal box, Murray gave just a hint of the nerves he had insisted would not be present, slipping to 0-40 in his opening serving game.
But Nieminen was unable to capitalise on the four break points as Murray swiftly got himself out of trouble before breaking serve in the next game.
From there Murray continued to open up a decisive lead and took the set from the world number 67 by firing down three aces.
Nieminen, has a solid record on all courts. Four years ago he reached the last eight in SW19 and has also progressed as far as the Australian and US Open quarter finals.
But the Finn, who has been ranked as high as 13th, was unable to get into his stride as the British number one cleverly mixed up his game to prevent his opponent from finding any rhythm.
Murray dominated with his serve and always looked comfortably in charge too, whenever the pair became locked in a rally.
Murray converted his third break point of the seventh game a simple volley and easily served out the set to tighten his grip on the match.
There was to be no let-up for Nieminen as Murray unfurled winner after winner to race through the third set and safely into the next round.
