Murray muscles past Sonego in Montreal

Andy Murray defeated Italian Lorenzo Sonego 7-6 (3), 6-0 to advance to the second round of the Toronto Masters at the Aviva Centre on Tuesday evening.

Three-time champion Murray saved a pair of set points in the opening set before cruising through the second set to book his victory in two hours and nine minutes in difficult conditons for the players. He improves to 2-0 lifetime against Sonego, after saving two match points to defeat the Italian in the second round at Doha in February.

“It really wasn’t pleasant to play in,” said Murray after his win as per the ATP Tour website “It was really blustery, changing direction during the point, and we knew coming in it was going to feel uncomfortable. We hit on this court this morning and it was really breezy. So I was expecting it but it still adds a bit of stress to the match and it was a really tight first set. There were lots of opportunities each way, I managed to sneak through the tie-break and after that he was obviously a bit disappointed, and I relaxed a little bit.”

36-year-old Murray evens his 2023 record at 11-11 and ups his lifetime record at the Canadian Open to 27-7. He won the title in Canada in 2009, 2010 and 2015.

Murray, ranked No 40, will face the winner of the match between Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the No 10 seed, and Australian qualifier Max Purcell next.

Toronto Masters, other first-round matches (Aviva Centre, hard, USD 6,600,000):

• Sebastian Korda beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry: 6-3, 6-2
• Marcos Giron (Q) beat Emil Ruusuvuori: 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6)
• Matteo Arnaldi (Q) beat Vasek Pospisil (WC): 6-4, 6-4
• Tommy Paul (12) beat Diego Schwartzman (Q): 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
• Miomir Kecmanovic beat Cristian Garin (Q): 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-4
• Milos Raonic (WC) beat Frances Tiafoe (9): 6-7 (12), 7-6 (4), 6-3
• Taro Daniel (Q) beat Adrian Mannarino: 7-6 (5), 6-4
• Gael Monfils beat Christopher Eubanks: 7-6 (3), 6-7 (4), 6-1
• Thanasi Kokkinakis (Q) beat Zhizhen Zhang: 7-5, 6-4
• Hubert Hurkacz (15) beat Alexander Bublik: 6-3, 7-6 (2)
• Matteo Berrettini beat Gregoire Barrere: 6-4, 6-3
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat J.J. Wolf: 6-0, 6-2
• Jiri Lehecka beat Brandon Nakashima: 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (2)
• Lorenzo Musetti (16) beat Yoshihito Nishioka: 6-4, 6-1
• Francisco Cerundolo beat Alexis Galarneau (WC): 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Max Purcell
• Gabriel Diallo vs. Daniel Evans
• Ben Shelton vs. Bernabe Zapata Miralles
• Alex De Minaur vs. Cameron Norrie
• Alexander Zverev vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Aleksandar Vukic vs. Borna Coric
• Mackenzie McDonald vs. Aslan Karatsev
• Ugo Humbert vs. Nicolas Jarry

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