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BNP PARIBAS MASTERS 2014 - WEDNESDAY 29 OCTOBER IP: 46.218.233.162 Posted on October 30, 2014 at 03:40:03 AM by David Barnes
BNP PARIBAS MASTERS, PARIS
Wednesday 29 October 2014
Andy Murray had a fairly easy victory over Julien Benneteau in their second round encounter here today, winning 6-3, 6-4 in just over an hour. The Scot, rampaging through recent ATP Tour events just as his mother Judy has been doing in ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ rounds, said afterwards; “I put in a lot of hard work the last few weeks; played a lot of tough, long matches. If I get to London [he needs to win his 3rd round match tomorrow against Grigor Dimitrov to be sure of participating] I deserve to be there, because it’s your results across the whole year. My results in most tournaments this year, most of the big tournaments, have been good enough to be in the top 8. I have won more matches than most of the players in the Slams”.
If Murray was unashamedly self-justificatory in his press conference, the man whom many are tipping to meet him in the final here on Sunday, number 2 seed Roger Federer, was less ostentatiously crowing after beating another Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy. An interesting match-up for all sorts of reasons, not least because Switzerland take on France in the David Cup final in just over three weeks’ time. The Swiss legend eventually won today’s match 7-6, 6-7, 6-4, needing more than two and a half hours to do so, and was asked some half-wit question afterwards about how he “also have a good relationship with France. We couldn’t find anybody criticizing you. It isn’t normal”. Playing a straight bat (so to speak), he parried with; “I always had a good relationship with all the players. I travelled a lot in France when I was younger . . . I learnt how to speak French when I was 14 years old. So I was always welcomed in France and never had any problems”. Just like Andy and Judy Murray in England, then . . .
The French had their minds on more immediate matters, with both Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils in action on the Centre Court this evening. Despite dropping the second set, Tsonga, seeded 10, breezed past Jurgen Melzer in less than an hour and three quarters, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, while the unseeded Monfils took more or less the same time to beat 13th seed John Isner 6-4, 7-6, the latter imploding in the second set tie-break with a series of dismal backhands. Vive La France, at least until ‘the battle of Lille’ between 21 and 23 November.
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David Barnes/Topspin, 2014
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