Murray Drops 3 Games In Beijing; Nadal Returns Thurs Plus Dimitrov-Pouille, Wozniacki-Radwanska
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Andy Murray’s Asian swing if off to a good start in Beijing. In the first round he blitzed Andreas Seppi and earlier today he buried Andrey Kuznetsov 6-2, 6-1.
Recall Murray came up a bit lame at the end of his Davis Cup win over Guido Pella last month. But the Scot says he’s doing much better now.
“I felt fine when I came here. I trained for a couple of days before coming to test it out. No problem. I’ve been moving well,” Murray said. “Actually felt quite quick on the court, which sometimes when you take a break, maybe takes a little bit of time to get that sharpness back.
“But I think that’s what my body needed at that stage of the season, after the amount of tennis I played. I needed some time away. I’ve gotten up to speed quite quickly again.”
Murray will get qualifier and countryman Kyle Edmund on Friday.
David Ferrer also advanced and notably Alex Zverev continued to shine thumping Jack Sock 6-4, 6-2. For a young kid playing well at the end of the season, that’s really impressive.
Richard Gasquet beat Sam Querrey in three and another American went down as Grigor Dimitrov edged Steve Johnson 7-5, 6-7(9), 6-4.
After a rough early summer, Dimitrov is turning things around and tomorrow will face 2016 breakout star Lucas Pouille.
The women are also in Beijing – actually, they are the headliners! – and today top ranked Angelique Kerber was a winner along with her opponent in the US Open final, Karolina Pliskova.
Madison Keys and the red hot Petra Kvitova were also winners. Kvitova beat down defending champion Garbine Muguruza 6-1, 6-4 to win her 8th straight match.
Tomorrow, Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki meet for what I believe is the third straight week. Karolina Pliskova collides with Jo Konta, Simona Halep is back and Kerber faces Elina Svitolina.
For the men, former champion Rafael Nadal returns against fellow lefty Adrian Mannarino.
THURSDAY BEIJING SCHEDULE
NATIONAL TENNIS STADIUM start 12:30 pm
WTA – [3] A. Radwanska (POL) vs C. Wozniacki (DEN)
WTA – [1] A. Kerber (GER) vs [16] E. Svitolina (UKR)
Not Before 4:00 pm
ATP – [6] L. Pouille (FRA) vs G. Dimitrov (BUL)
Not Before 7:30 pm
WTA – S. Zhang (CHN) vs [4] S. Halep (ROU)
Not Before 9:00 pm
ATP – [Q] A. Mannarino (FRA) vs [2] R. Nadal (ESP)
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