'It's difficult to keep up' - Andy Murray beats Alejandro Davidovich, admits facing young players 'not easy'
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Updated 11/10/2022 at 20:33 GMT
Andy Murray overcame early adversity to beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the first round of the Gijon Open. Murray, in his first tour appearance since last month's Laver Cup in London, was 4-2 down in the first set but fought back to win in straight sets after some impressive point craft on the slow surface. Murray said he "still enjoys" playing but that younger opponents make his life harder.
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Andy Murray dealt with an early setback to beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-5 6-2 in the first round of the Gijon Open, before admitting that facing the younger generation of players is "not easy".
Murray's appearance in north-east Spain was his first on the tour since September's Laver Cup in London, where he had lost both his singles and doubles matches.
Sitting 48th in the ATP rankings, Murray is targeting a strong end to the season to keep his ranking as high as possible, which should in theory allow him to get a better draw at the Australian Open, 2023's first major.
And he made a good start to that quest in Gijon, where he recovered from an early break to win through in straight sets.
Speaking after his win, Murray said: "Obviously I still enjoy it.
"It’s not easy. The young guys are moving unbelievably well and they’re all hitting the ball harder and harder all of the time. So it’s difficult to keep up.
"In the first set he was playing much better than me. He had a lot of chances to get the second break of serve and I managed to stay tough in those moments.
"At the 4-3 game he played a bad game to give me the break back and after that I started to play a little bit better.
"I think he was a bit frustrated, and then in the second set his level dropped a little bit, but the end of the first set was very important because he was playing very well and it was a difficult first set.
”We had a fantastic crowd today, a really nice atmosphere for the first round of a tournament. I really enjoy playing in new places, I’ve never been here before and it’s a beautiful place, so I’m happy to be here."
Things didn't go Murray's way in the opening skirmishes in Gijon, with the Briton being broken to 15 in the very first game by Davidovich Fokina, who was quickly taking to his home backing.
The rest of the set continued on serve until Murray began a superb fightback at 4-2 down, reeling off three games to go into a 5-4 lead.
A tie-break looked imminent at 6-5 to Murray, but Davidovich Fokina faltered on his final service game of the set, allowing Murray to seize his third set point of the game, and with it the set.
Could the Spaniard recover from that setback?
Immediately it looked like the answer was no, as Murray charged into a 3-0 lead in the second, retrieving and moving well on the slow indoor surface, whilst giving his opponent very few looks on his own serve.
And at 4-1 came the double break that the Scot was no doubt keen to get his hands on, giving him what appeared to be a comfortable ending to the match.
But Davidovich Fokina wasn't done, and he saved a match point to force break points of his own, taking his third of the game to make it 5-2.
The Scot looked frustrated but wasn't prepared to let adversity get the better of him, and served it out in the next to book his place in the second round.
Murray is set to face Argentina's Pedro Vachin or Alexey Vatutin next, with a tough test against Roberto Bautista Agut potentially ahead in the quarter-finals.
The top seed for the ATP 250 event is Andrey Rublev, who is away from Murray in the top half of the draw.
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