Murray brushes aside Ferrero challenge

Andy Murray put in a commanding performance against Juan Carlos Ferrero yesterday at the Montreal Masters to reach the quarter finals, as he dismissed the Spaniard 6-1, 6-3 in one hours and 17 minutes.

Murray eased to victory in intensely hot conditions and never looked in danger of losing, displaying far more speed, power and agility than his opponent.

Ferrero looked to have been in good form, having previously beaten Lleyton Hewitt and Gaël Monfils, but suffered another defeat at the hands of Murray, as was the case at the Queen’s Club Championship and Wimbledon.

Murray broke early to lead 3-0 and a second break in game 6 sealed the first set, dominating from the baseline and finding a range of winners.

The second set started in similar fashion as Murray constantly pressured the Ferrero serve and managed to convert his second break point, without the Spaniard causing any problems on his own serve.

Murray declared his satisfaction with the result and will now be confident of beating Nikolay Davydenko, who earned a tight victory over Chilean Fernando Gonzalez 7-6 (7-2), 7-5.

“I’m happy with the way I played,” said the Scot. “It was a tough start. Those first three or four games lasted about half an hour, and then a lot of long points, long games. Once I got the second break in the first set I felt a lot more comfortable.”

“It was very good, he’s a very tough player,” he added. “I played really well and when I needed to, came up with some big first serves. I’m hitting the ball really well from the back of the court.”            

If he wins the tournament, the British number one will take the world number two ranking from Rafael Nadal, who is playing his first tournament since May following the knee injury that prevented him from defending his Wimbledon Crown.

Comeback of a legend: Kim Clijsters upon the brink of return

Former tennis world number one Kim Clijsters is returning to the ATP tour this week two years after having retired and is ready to compete in tournaments in Cincinnati and Toronto as build up to the US Open.

The 26 year old Belgian announced in May 2007 that she was quitting the sport like compatriot Justine Henin-Hardenne and has since had a child, but reversed her decision in March this year.

Her first opponent is likely to provide a tough challenge in the form of French world number 13 Marion Bartoli, who won the Stanford title last week by beating Venus Williams in the final.

“I’ve been practising for a long time now and I am anxious to start”, Clijsters explained. “It was really necessary to practice and get back into shape but now I’ve been there for a while and I want to play matches. I look forward to playing.”

Clijsters featured in an exhibition doubles match in May this year at Wimbledon to test Centre Court’s new roof, taking to the court with tennis legends Steffi Graf, Tim Henman and John McEnroe, but admitted preparation is still an ongoing struggle.

“I had still tried to run and to stay in shape but it was nothing compared to what I was like before, when I was playing.”

“I didn’t want to get injured, I did a lot of prevention exercises. My biggest goal was to try and get my core very stable so I can still move the way that I want to on the court.”

Clijsters explained that she is not setting herself any concrete targets, but is aiming for a good performance in the US open and will take it from there.

“For me personally, it’s not something, not yet at least, about the results,” she said. “My personal goals are physically trying to learn again what’s missing, what’s good and what could be better, and just go from there.

“I want to take these three tournaments and see: where am I at? What do I need to work on in the off-season?

Despite cutting her career short, the Belgian has amassed an impressive 34 singles titles, including the 2005 US Open, and led the women’s rankings for 19 weeks in total.

Josephine Butler Tennis Club

Josephine Butler Tennis Club has endured a tough season in its debut year. Its rapid inception around November enabled its presence at the March sports formal before it had ever competed, but naturally, this failed to dampen its members’ enthusiasm. Having made strides from the dark gloomy days of the occupation of a solitary court at Grey’s 9am on a Sunday morning, desperately battling against the perils of losing balls to unsuspecting cars tearing down South Road and the amusement of passing onlookers (not to mention the Durham weather), the club now enjoys regular training sessions at Maiden Castle and has successfully submitted an entrance to the college league this summer. At the time of writing it seems unlikely that the club will advance from Pool B to the semi-finals, but the club is optimistic it is in a healthy position to become a force in the years to come.

Thanks must go to Steven Crosby for the tennis club’s foundation, to Adam Geach and Rob Drinkwater for their support, to the squad for turning out at fixtures, to David the Webmaster for continually expanding the mailing list and of course to the members for generally being a good laugh.