Tennis: Murray cruises to victory

Ah, the joys of Paris in the spring. Unless you were one of the first-day losers you could not have failed to be bewitched by the opening of the French Open yesterday.

For much of the day the sun beat down from a cloudless sky, a light breeze soothed heated brows and even Marat Safin managed a smile in celebration of a rare victory. If there had not been interminable queues for icecream, this would have been a fan's vision of tennis heaven.

Andy Murray's all-black outfit hardly reflected the mood, but his tennis did. The 22-year-old Scot, who beat Juan Ignacio Chela 6-2 6-2 6-1, was last out on Suzanne Lenglen Court, the second of the show stadiums, and for long periods his game matched the glorious evening sunshine.

While victory was no more than the world No 3 should have expected against an opponent finding his way back after a back injury, the manner of it was more than satisfying. Murray moved smoothly around the court, varied his game to devastating effect and hit 55 winners to earn a second-round meeting with Mischa Zverev or Potito Starace, who played overnight.

Although Chela was out of the game for eight months with a herniated disc and is playing here with a protected ranking, having slipped to No 205 in the world, the 29-year-old Argentine is an accomplished clay-court player. He has won four titles on his favourite surface, whereas Murray had never won more than two matches in a row on clay before reaching the semifinals in Monte Carlo last month.

The first three games took 17 minutes, Murray fighting back after dropping his serve in the opener, but from that point on the Scot took control. With Murray mixing drop shots and lobs with some sparkling ground strokes, Chela looked exhausted by the middle of the first set.

Ivo Karlovic, who at 2.08m is the tallest player in tennis, also thrived in the heat. Clay generally undermines a big server's advantages, but the courts here are quicker than most, particularly in warmer conditions.

Lleyton Hewitt was in the firing line as the 30-year-old Croatian served an astonishing 55 aces, believed to be a record for a single match in the Open era. Even more remarkably, Hewitt took the match, coming back from two sets down for the fifth time in his career to win 6-7 6-7 7-6 6-4 6-3.

There is no grittier fighter than the former world No 1, who has always had one of the best returns of serve but was aced 41 times in the first three sets.

The statistics sent tennis historians diving into their record books. Karlovic's 55 aces were reckoned to be 18 more than the previous record at Roland Garros, by Andy Roddick against Michael Chang eight years ago. The all-time record is held by Ed Kauder, who fired 59 past Hamilton Richardson at Forest Hills in 1955 but, like Karlovic, still lost. Indeed, in the past 18 years four players have hit 47 aces or more - Karlovic on two occasions - yet they have all lost.

Ana Ivanovic, returning to the stage where she won her first Grand Slam title 12 months ago, beat Italy's Sara Errani 7-6 6-3, although her game did not look in great shape. There was not too much wrong with her booming forehand but her backhand was shaky and there was precious little variety about her game.

Having missed the recent Madrid tournament with a knee injury, however, Ivanovic was happy with her performance. "I knew I had to work hard for my points today and I'm very happy I did that," she said. "There were some nerves, but I'm happy I overcame them."

- INDEPENDENT