NEW YORK (Agencies): Andy Murray was one of six British players to win their first-round matches on a superb day for the nation at the US Open. Murray kept focus against combustible Frenchman Corentin Moutet to win 6-2 7-5 6-3 in an entertaining encounter.
Katie Boulter and Jodie Burrage both claimed main-draw victories in New York for the first time. Cameron Norrie, Dan Evans and Jack Draper also won as all the Britons progressed without dropping a set. Boulter, 27, started the clean sweep with a 6-4 6-0 win over France’s Diane Parry, before 16th seed Norrie won 6-3 6-2 6-2 against Russia’s Alexander Shevchenko.
Former world number one Murray then saw off the challenge of Moutet before Draper beat Moldova’s Radu Albot 6-1 6-4 6-3 and Dan Evans earned a 6-4 6-2 7-5 win against Colombia’s Daniel Elahi Galan. Burrage completed a successful day for British tennis, which has faced questions – particularly on the women’s side – about its lack of depth at the top level, with a 6-3 6-4 victory over Russia’s Anna Blinkova. Qualifier Lily Miyazaki also reached the second round in straight sets when she earned her first win at a major on Monday.
Burrage said she felt “a little pressure” knowing she was trying to maintain the British winning streak on Tuesday. “I wish I hadn’t known everyone else had won when I was going on court, but who knows, maybe it helped me,” she said. “It puts you in a better mood when other people are winning. It makes you believe that you can do it a little bit more. “It has been a good day for the Brits.”
‘He always causes chaos’ – Murray happy to progress Three-time major champion Murray showed plenty of his vast experience to come through a testing encounter against 72nd-ranked Moutet. An abdominal injury left the 36-year-old coming into the final Grand Slam event of the season with less court time than he would have liked and he was pushed physically in humid conditions – as well as being challenged mentally.
Moutet likes to switch up his patterns of play in a bid to confuse opponents, but Murray was able to anticipate and reacted well to dominate the opening set. Murray saved two set points to fight back from a break down in the second set, again closing it out strongly by winning four straight games. His ability to frustrate his rivals was shown by the demonstrative Moutet destroying a racquet, and pretending to eat the ball, to indicate his frustration at not being able to level the match.
Murray retained his composure despite everything that was happening in an action-packed encounter. In the third set, Moutet took a tumble where he landed awkwardly on his left wrist, Murray seemed to be dealing with cramp himself and there was also the first use of VAR-style technology at a major for a double bounce. “It was an amazing match,” said Murray, who clinched victory in just under three hours to become only the ninth man to win 200 Grand Slam singles matches.
“He is one of the most skilful players on the tour, he has so many different ways to disrupt you. “He always causes a bit of chaos out there. I hope it was entertaining, there were a lot of fun points. I’m happy to get through because the second set was so tight.” Murray will renew rivalries with Bulgarian 19th seed Grigor Dimitrov, who saved three match points before beating Slovakia’s Alex Molcan from two sets down, in the second round on Thursday.
Boulter looking to re-establish herself among world’s elite Boulter climbed to a career-high ranking of 60th in the world earlier this month after a strong summer on the British grass where she won her first WTA title in Nottingham and reached the Wimbledon third round. Those results enabled her to re-establish her place in the top 100, four years after dropping out because of stress fracture to her back. After earning only her second major win outside of Wimbledon, she said: “I want to consolidate my ranking and really show that week in, week out I can play these girls and get a lot of wins against them.
“That’s what’s really going to build my confidence. I didn’t get the chance to do it before when I was inside 100 and I feel like I finally got my feet settled. “Now is my time to really push on.” Boulter will face Wang Yafan next after the Chinese world number 114 stunned French seventh seed Caroline Garcia 6-4 6-1. Burrage cracked the world’s top 100 for the first time on the back of reaching the Nottingham final and earning her first Grand Slam main draw win at Wimbledon.
The rise up the rankings meant the 24-year-old, who thought about quitting the sport in 2020 after a series of injuries, had earned direct entry into the main draw of a major for the first time. “When you sit back and look at where I was and where I am now, I’ve come miles. I’m proud of myself,” said Burrage, whose reward is a meeting with second seed Aryna Sabalenka.
