World No. 4 Andy Murray recovered from a slow start to defeat Spaniard Albert Montanes 7-5, 6-3, and reach the third round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, the first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament of the season, on Saturday.
Murray, who was playing in his first match since last month in Dubai where he withdrew from the quarterfinals due to a virus, was broken in the third game but broke Montanes for the first time to level the match at 4-4 on a double fault. The Spaniard double faulted again on set point in the 12th game. In the second set Murray saved both break points he faced and broke the Spaniard in the eighth game before serving out the one hour and 35-minute match.
The 21-year-old Scot, a semifinalist in Indian Wells two years ago, improved his career-best start to 16-1 on the season and he will next take on No. 32 seed Paul-Henri Mathieu, who edged out Potito Starace 6-4, 6-7(11), 6-4 in two and a-half hours.
Eleventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won his ATP World Tour-best 22nd match of the season with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili. The 23-year-old Frenchman only lost nine points in 11 service games, winning 36 of 38 on first serve. Tsonga, a winner of ATP World Tour titles in Johannesburg and Marseille, is 22-3 on the season.
Fifteenth-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo continued his strong play this season as he improved to a 19-4 mark with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Russian Igor Kunitsyn. The 26-year-old Spaniard evened his career record at 7-7 in Indian Wells as he broke three times and never faced a break point in the 57-minute match. Robredo will next face No. 19 seed Marin Cilic.
The top Croat rallied to defeat Belgian Steve Darcis 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-1, and lift his match record to 17-2 on the season. Cilic broke Darcis six times while losing his serve twice in the two hour and three minute match. Cilic fired 11 aces and won 53 per cent of second serve points to Darcis' 33 per cent.
Russian Igor Andreev, the No. 22 seed, opened with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over 20-year-old Latvian Ernests Gulbis. Andreev converted four of 10 break points while losing his serve twice in the one hour and 12-minute match. Andreev, who won the previous meeting with Gulbis in five sets at the Australian Open in January, will next play the winner of Teimuraz Gabashvili and No. 11 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
No. 23 seed Richard Gasquet of France beat countryman Michael Llodra 6-4, 6-0 in 67 minutes to reach the third round or better in Indian Wells for the fourth straight year. Gasquet improved to 5-1 against his countrymen this season and went to 11-5 in 2009. He will await the winner of No. 10 Fernando Verdasco and qualifier Thomaz Bellucci.
German Philipp Kohlschreiber advanced to the third round for the third time in the past four years with a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3 win over French lucky loser Olivier Patience, who took the place of injured No. 5 seed Nikolay Davydenko. Kohlschreiber is the first unseeded player into the third round.
(From Website : http://www.bnpparibasopen.org/1/news/newsarticle_2570.asp)
