In a way, if you looked at the opening round matches of the top two seeds here at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, you could say that it reflected their mentality.
Novak Djokovic was down 1-5 during his first set against Jan-Lennard Struff on Monday but he then produced a fightback that saw him win the first set and then wrap up the second set and the match with ease.
Yesterday, Andy Murray, playing his first round match against Jeremy Chardy, came out guns blazing, and took the first set 6-0. And then in the second set, he huffed and puffed, was broken once and then pulled it back together in the tie-breaker to claim a straight sets victory. The scoreline read 6-0, 7-6 (2) but the second set could have gone in either direction. The characters coming through, don’t you think?
It’s, undoubtedly, reading too much between the lines but it does make for an interesting comparison. What’s good is that the fans at the Khalifa International Complex – quite a few had turned up to support Murray – saw good tennis being played in the second set. And they would also be happy that ‘their man’ had progressed into the second round.
“He (Chardy) stepped it up big time but didn’t start too well,” said Murray after the match. “The first match of the year is always difficult and we were probably both a bit nervous at the start,” the Scot added.
In the first set, Chardy couldn’t get his rhythm with shots being missed and it looked like Murray would double-bagel him. But in the second set, the Frenchman began to serve better and his shots too started staying inside the tramlines. “He didn’t serve too well in the first set but was a lot more aggressive in the second and pushed me hard,” said Murray on his opponent’s resurgence in the second set.
The world No. 1 said that he “liked the conditions” here and was looking forward to doing better as the tournament and the season goes on. “The last five or six months of last year were the best I have played consistently but I’ve got to keep getting better. I finally made it to number one after 12 months of trying. I had a lot of tough losses but I got there,” said Murray. This win now takes Murray’s unbeaten run to 25 matches.
The Brit will now take on Austrian Gerald Melzer, who came from a set down to defeat Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-2. The match lasted an exact two hours.
Chardy and Mathieu - two Frenchmen bowed out of the tournament yesterday but Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ensured that his country’s flag continued to blow in the Doha wind after he defeated Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov 6-1, 4-6, 6-2. In the first set, Tsonga was on song but his game dropped in the second and the Russian was ready to pounce on that. But then, just like the first set, Tsonga was a dominant force in the third and won it with ease.
Tsonga said he got a bit tentative with his shot selection in the second set and that cost him. “I played pretty good in the first set. Then I was waiting a little bit more in the second for a good shot to come along. In the first set, I didn’t seem to hesitate but I can’t explain why that happened in the second. In the third set I came back to played like the first set and it was good,” said Tsonga yesterday.
“It was a good match to win. It’s a pretty good level I played in these two sets and that will help me in the next match,” he added.
The 31-year-old also said that he was relieved to be fit after an injury-prone 2016. “I’m feeling good now. To be honest, 2016 was long. I’m finally healthy. It’s good because I feel like I can play 100% every day. I can practice consistently. For me, it’s something new, so I will, yeah, enjoy it and try to stay healthy and try to rise my level,” said Tsonga, who now take on German Dustin Brown next.
From Qatar’s perspective, Mubarak Shannan Zayid lost his first round match to Russia’s Karen Khachanov 6-1, 6-3. Zayid had received a wild card for this event and lost the first set easily but did put up a better performance in the second. In the doubles the Qatar pairing of Jabor Mohamed Ali Mutawa and Mousa Shanan Zayed lost their first round match 3-6, 1-6 to Robin Haase of the Netherlands and Germany’s Philipp Petzschiner.
results
first round (x denotes seeding)
Andy Murray (GBR x1) bt Jérémy Chardy (FRA) 6-0, 7-6 (7/2);
Gerald Melzer (AUT) bt Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-2; Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER x7) bt Malek Jaziri (TUN) 6-2, 7-6 (7/3); Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x5) bt Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS) 6-1, 4-6, 6-2l Ivo Karlovic (CRO x6) bt Illya Marchenko (UKR) 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/0)l Karen Khachanov (RUS) bt Mubarak Shannan Zayid (QAT) 6-1, 6-3; Tomas Berdych (Cze) bt Alessandro Giannessi (ITA) 7-6 (1), 6-2
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