RIO DE JANEIRO, August 10, 2016
Three Olympic gold medallists headlined the action on Centre Court at the Barra Olympic Tennis Centre on Tuesday.
Reigning Olympic champion Andy Murray eased past Juan Mónaco, winning 6-3, 6-1 in only 69 minutes. The world number two sent down five aces and broke his opponents serve five times to set a third round meeting with Fabio Fognini.
“It was good today. I hit the ball well from the back of the court, not many unforced errors so it was a good match,” Murray told and added on whether doubles loss fuelled his motivation for singles:
“I didn’t use it as fuel – it made things harder if anything. It was a very tough loss, the way the match went.. it was really tough. You’ve just got to take it, move on and try your best the next day to win your matches and that’s it.
Mixed feelings for the Spanish player on Day 4, as David Ferrer fell to Evgeny Donskoy 6-3, 6-7, 5-7. The Russian won five points less than the seventh seed but emerged victorious in two hours and 28 minutes.
Rafael Nadal, however, advanced to the third round, winning 6-3, 6-3 over Andreas Seppi. Later the day, Nadal also advanced in the doubled competition partnering Marc López. The Spanish combination beat Austrians Oliver Marach and Alexander Peya 6-3, 6-1.
“Very happy to be in the semifinals, but especially happy to be in the semifinals with one of my best friends,” Nadal told.
“We are enjoying the matches, we are enjoying a lot the weeks here in Rio. We are enjoying the Olympic experience, we are very happy about what’s happening.”
Williams And Muguruza Fall In Women’s Draw
Elina Svitolina knocked out world number one Serena Williams, winning 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 12 minutes.
“Obviously I am disappointed but she played really well and the better player today won but I can’t wait for the next time and I know next time is going to be a really good match and I look forward to it,” Williams said and added:
“It was a great opportunity but it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to. At least I was able to make it to Rio, that was one of my goals.”
Svitolina was overwhelmed:
“I really didn’t think about it even when I was 40-30 and I won finally the match,” said the Ukrainian. “It was just unreal feeling because I didn’t expect it, even at that moment that I could win. I think that helped me a lot to think, don’t expect mistakes from her but just fight and be focused.
“Being in the moment helped me today, [to] just relax and go for my shots because I was doing some winners, especially the second set when it was really tight.”
Monica Puig blew kisses to the crowd to acknowledge a remarkable 6-1, 6-1 victory for the 22-year-old against the world number four Garbine Muguruza from Spain.
“I still have goose bumps. You just go into shock, you are trying to keep it together the whole time because you know in that last game, serving at 4-1 especially to consolidate that break, you’re so close to winning you start getting emotional, there’s no hiding it, you start feeling those butterflies, those nerves. So I think it’s all that coming out, you keep it bottled up. It’s like a Coca Cola bottle if you shake it, you shake it, you shake it, it’s going to explode. I just tried to not explode till the right moment and it worked,” Puig told on serving for the match and will next play Laura Siegemund from Germany for a place in the semifinals.
