GIJON/STARNBERG, October 11, 2022
Former World No. 1 Andy Murray began his Gijon Open campaign in Spain with a solid first-round 7-5, 6-2 win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, home favourite and sixth seed of the ATP 250 hard-court event, on Tuesday.
In the pair’s first meeting, the 35-year-old British wild card entry capitalized on five of his nine break-point chances to prevail in one hour and 43 minutes.
A strong performance 👏@andy_murray defeats Davidovich Fokina 7-5 6-2!#GijonOpem pic.twitter.com/JsNWNFwxLy
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 11, 2022
“In the first set he was playing much better than me,” said Murray after his first tour-level match since the US Open. “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.”
Murray will next take on either Argentine Pedro Cachin or Russian qualifier Alexey Vatutin.
Giron and Alvarez Varona with comeback wins
In other action, Marcos Giron rallied past No. 8 seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. The 29-year-old US-American won 54 per cent of the total points played and will face Austria’s Dominic Thiem in the second round.
Nicolas Alvarez Varona also came back from a set down to outlast fellow qualifier Marco Trungelliti of Argentina 1-6, 6-3, 6-0. The 21-year-old World No. 231 from Spain struck six aces and won 76 per cent of his first-service points to seal his first tour-level main draw victory in one hour and 45 minutes. Alvarez Varona, a two-time singles champion on the ITF World Tennis Tour, will next play fifth favourite Tommy Paul of the United States.
