Seventh seed Andy Murray and former champion Ana Ivanovic advanced to the third round of the French Open in straight sets at the Roland Garros on Thursday.
Murray overpowered Australia's Marinko Matosevic 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 in just two hours to continue his first French Open title quest. The Brit fired 31 winners and made full use of the 39 unforced errors committed by the Australian.
The Wimbledon champion dominated the match from the start and took no time in winning the first two sets. Matosevic broke Murray's serve once in the third set, but the seventh-seed got the break back in next game to wrap up the match.
"It was a good serving performance today, especially when I was down in games," said Murray. "In the game I got broken right at the end, it was not down to my serving, really. I just missed a few other shots. I was just trying to make sure that my intensity was there every moment, especially at the beginning of the sets. I managed to get ahead early in all of them, and that helped."
The 27-year-old Murray will next face German Philipp Kohlschreiber, who defeated Russian Denis Istomin 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-2 in his second round encounter. In their previous meeting at Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Kohlschreiber got the better of two-time major champion.
"It will be a very tough match for me," said Murray. "I played him once before on clay and I think I got three games. It will be very tough. He obviously won the tournament [in Dusseldorf] last week. He's not dropped a set here, I don't think. He's a very good player."
Meanwhile, Serbian Ivanovic defeated Ukraine's Elina Svitolina 7-5, 6-2 after a rollercoaster first set. Svitolina broke Ivanovic's serve in the first game, but the former French Open champion won three straight games to rally back into the match. Svitolina, however, clinched next two games to make it 3-3.
The Serb eventually won the set by breaking her opponent's serve in the 12th game. Ivanovic took the second set easily to clinch the match. The 11th-seed broke Svitolina's serve six times, while dropping her own serve thrice.
"The first set was very tight," Ivanovic said. "I was really happy to hold my nerves in the end of that set and then sort of pick up my intensity and rhythm in the second. She's a very dangerous opponent. I think she has a good future in front of her. She still needs to get more consistent, but her strokes are very powerful and she has a very dangerous game."
Ivanovic will next face Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova, who defeated Australia's Casey Dellacqua 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 in the second round. Safarova has won four straight matches against Ivanovic.
"It's going to be a tough match-up," Ivanovic added on Thursday. "She has been playing really well lately. The last few times I actually lost, so I will try to get revenge and look forward to the challenge. I have tomorrow to get ready for it, and hopefully it will be a good one."
