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Murray homes in on precious win
GLASGOW: Andy Murray bounced back from his Wimbledon disappointment to help Great Britain grab a share of the spoils in the opening singles of their Davis Cup clash with Luxembourg.
World No.4 Murray, beaten in the semi-finals at Wimbledon by Rafael Nadal a week ago, barely broke sweat as he crushed lowly ranked Laurent Bram 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 to level the match at 1-1.
Bram, a 27-year-old club professional, does not have a current world ranking, weighing in at 996th in his most recent appearance in 2006.
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But Murray showed no mercy to his hopelessly outclassed opponent, wrapping up a rare triple bagel win in only 52 minutes to square the tie after James Ward had lost to Gilles Muller in the opening rubber.
''It was good fun, it's nice to be back in Scotland. I've not been back for about 18 months and I need to make more of a habit of it. The support I've had here has been so nice,'' Murray said.
O In Buenos Aires, Argentina reached the Davis Cup semi-finals after Juan Ignacio Chela and Eduardo Schwank won their doubles rubber to establish a winning 3-0 lead over Kazakhstan.
Chela and Schwank raced past Yuriy Schukin and Evgeny Korolev 6-3 6-2 7-5 to put the encounter to bed and set up a September meeting with either holders Serbia or Sweden, who were facing off in Halmstad.
After racing though the opening two sets the Argentinians, clad in the sky blue and white of their football team, who are hosting the Copa America, broke for a decisive 6-5 lead in the third before Schwank finished the job on his fourth match point.
Former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro and Juan Monaco had set up the win on Thursday in easily winning their opening singles against Mikhail Kukushkin and Andrey Golubev.
The Kazakhs, made up of naturalised Russian players, had caused a shock by dumping out the Czech Republic in the previous round but at the Parque Roca they were blown away by an Argentine side who looked determined to break their tournament duck.
O In Bern, Roger Federer overcame early problems to beat Portugal's Rui Machado and guide Switzerland to a 2-0 lead on Friday.
Federer's service was broken twice in the opening set by the 93rd-ranked Machado before he recovered to win 5-7 6-3 6-4 6-2 in the Group I second-round match.
It was Federer's first match since losing in the Wimbledon quarter-finals to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga last week.
Earlier on Friday, Federer's Olympics gold medal-winning doubles partner Stanislas Wawrinka beat Frederico Gil 7-5 6-3 6-4.
Federer and Wawrinka are scheduled to face Gil and Leonardo Tavares in Saturday's doubles rubber. The contest is being played on indoor hard courts.
The winning nation advances to a play-off in September to join the 16-nation world group.
O In Sweden, holders Serbia shrugged off the injury-enforced absence of Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic to take a 2-0 lead over Sweden in their Davis Cup quarter-final on Friday.
Viktor Troicki beat Michael Ryderstedt 6-3 6-1 6-7 (6-8) 7-5 in the first singles rubber, just hours after new world No.1 Djokovic pulled out of his rubber against Ervin Eleskovic citing a knee injury.
World No.29 Janko Tipsarevic stepped in and enjoyed a comfortable match when debutant Eleskovic, the world 355, retired with a knee injury after the Serb had established a 6-2 1-0 lead in just 44 minutes.
''I want to say at the start that it's a terrible way to win. I am really sorry for Ervin,'' Tipsarevic said. ''I am happy to give my country a point but I didn't want to win like this.''
Post je objavljen 12.07.2011. u 04:25 sati.