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Melbourne: Andy Murray got some payback on vocal local hope Marinko Matosevic, who criticised his coach Amelie Mauresmo, as he cruised into the Australian Open third round with a straight sets romp Wednesday.
The British sixth seed had few problems in winning 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 in 1hr 42min in hot conditions on Margaret Court Arena and will next face Portugal`s Joao Sousa.
The two-time Grand Slam champion broke the erratic Matosevic`s serve seven times and controlled the match with the Australian committing 49 unforced errors to Murray`s 12.
It extended Murray`s record against Australian opponents to 10-0 as he bids to go one better than his three runner-up finishes at Melbourne Park.
It was also some riposte for Murray after Matosevic slammed the surprise appointment of Mauresmo as his coach last year.
Matosevic created headlines back then when he dismissively said of Murray`s decision to replace Ivan Lendl with Mauresmo: “I couldn`t do it because I don`t think that highly of the women`s game.
“It`s all equal rights these days, politically correct. Someone`s got to give it a go, but it won`t be me.”
Matosevic stubbornly stuck to his guns after Wednesday`s match, not back-tracking on his trenchant views.
“My opinion still hasn`t changed on that and it won`t be changing,” Matosevic said.
“It`s a different sport. I feel like women`s tennis is a different sport to men`s tennis.”
But Matosevic`s views did not bother Murray.
“No, I get on well with Marinko. I spoke to him a little bit about what he said. He didn`t mean any harm,” he said.
“Everyone`s entitled to their opinion on anything. If he wants to get coached by a man, that`s absolutely fine. I have absolutely no issue with it at all.
“I still think he`s a good guy. I get on well with him. I wasn`t trying to prove a point at all when I was playing Marinko today. I was trying to win the match.”And asked if he had anything against Aussies, given his imposing playing record against them, Murray added: “I love Aussies, I get on well with a lot of the players from Australia and it`s just luck, I had no idea that was the case.
“But I`m sure in the next few years with the players the Aussies have got coming through, some fantastic young players, I am not sure if I am going to hold on to that record for much longer.”
Murray jumped out of the blocks and wrapped up the opening set in just 21 minutes but had some tighter games in the second and third sets.
“I definitely started quickly today. I was timing the ball well on the return and serving well from the beginning of the match,” he said.
“It helped a lot because obviously the crowd were behind him. I managed to take the crowd out of it a little bit by starting that quickly.
“He made a few errors at the beginning of the match. But when I noticed his timing was a bit off I felt like I played quite smart and used a lot of variety; didn`t give him the same ball twice in a row.”
Matosevic has yet to take a set off Murray in their three official matches to date.
AFP
