Andy Murray’s bid for a first ever French Open crown remains right on track after recording a four-set win against Portuguese Joao Sousa in the second round on Thursday. Murray will look to continue his tremendous form on clay this coming Saturday when he takes on Australian phenom Nick Kyrgios.
Read on below for an in-depth breakdown of this mouth-watering third-round matchup and while you’re at it, you can check out our preview of the round-of-32 clash between defending champion Rafael Nadal and Andrey Kuznetsov.
Andy Murray secured a place in the third round of the 2015 French Open with a tough 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over unseeded Joao Sousa at Roland Garros on Thursday. It was a battling performance from the Briton who needed two and a half hours to see off the Portuguese.
[sc:Other240banner ]Murray has been on a tear on the clay surfaces this season. With his win against Sousa, he stretched his unbeaten run on clay this year to 12 matches. Extending that streak against Sousa sure wasn’t easy, though, as Murray struggled with his unforced errors the entire match. He committed a whopping 30 unforced errors against Sousa. The saving grace for Murray in that match was in the winners department where he outhit Sousa, 37-29.
Murray will look to continue his hot streak when he takes on Nick Kyrgios in the third round. The British world No. 1 will fancy his chances of doing just that as he has fared extremely well against the Australian in the past. He has yet to taste defeat against Kyrgios in their previous two meetings with Murray winning both of those matches in straight sets.
They squared off with each other in the Australian Open earlier this year with Murray winning in three tough sets, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3. Their upcoming third-round battle will be their first meeting on clay.
Nick Kyrgios has been handed a free pass into the third round of the 2015 French Open after Kyle Edmund withdrew from their scheduled round of 64 clash with a stomach injury. Things are bound to get tougher for the Australian in the next round as he will face the red-hot Andy Murray.
For Kyrgios to record a major shock this coming Saturday and grab his first ever win against Murray, the Australian needs to dominate with his service game. Kyrgios’ serve was simply exceptional in his first-round match against Denis Istomin, converting 70% of his first serves. Kyrgios took full advantage of that fact, winning 49 of his 62 first serve points for an incredible 79% clip.
Kyrgios will also be licking his chops at the prospect of facing a Murray serve that has been shaky in the previous two rounds. After hitting just 63% of his first serves in the opening round, Murray’s first-serve percentage dropped even further in the round of 64 as he put into play just 57% of his first serves against Sousa.
That is great news for Kyrgios who won 45% of his receiving points in his opening-round win against Istomin. He also converted six of his 11 break point opportunities in that match for a solid 55% success rate.
