Murray outguns Karlovic to reach round three

Jun 29 2012 By Donald Morton

ANDY Murray faced up to the 6ft 10in powerful Croat Ivo Karlovic in the second round at Wimbledon and came through a tough encounter to win 7-5, 6-7, 6-2, 7-6.

The Dunblane ace will now face Marcos Baghdatis from Cyprus in round three.

Karlovic won the opening game on Murray's serve but it was to be the only time he broke the Scot in all four sets.

He complained bitterly afterwards about being called for foot faults, claiming there was a conspiracy against him. But he also served nine double faults in the match.

Murray's delight at going through to round three probably turned into delerium a few hours later. No-one expected World No 100 Lukas Rosol from Czech Republic to put up much of a fight against No 2 seed Rafael Nadal.

But around 10pm last night, the unthinkable had happened when Rosol held his nerve to 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

Nadal's defeat opens up Murray's half of the draw. They were seeded to meet in the semi final and the Rosol victory will give Murray even more incentive to reach his first Wimbledon final.

Jamie Murray and partner Eric Butorac tackle French duo Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra today (Friday) in round two of the men's doubles. He will also partner Paola Suarez of Argentina in the mixed doubles and plays Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands) and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik (Poland) in round one.

Former Stirling University student Colin Fleming and his doubles partner Ross Hutchins lost in round one to Nadal's conqueror Lukas Rosol and Mikhail Kukushkin (Kazakhstan). Fleming partners Su-Wei Hsieh (Taipei) in the mixed doubles and they meet Andre Sa (Brazil) and Anastasia Rodionova (Australia) in round one.