No.1 seeds Murray and Kerber toil

Andy Murray was left frustrated by the way he navigated through his first-round win over Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko at the Australian Open.

In hot conditions at Melbourne Park, the world No.1 was broken three times by his 95th-ranked opponent in the first two sets before finding his composure to record the 7-5 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 win.

“I don’t think it was the best match, to be honest,” Murray said.

“The conditions there were pretty different to what we’ve been practicing. Last week’s been pretty cool … a lot of days it’s been overcast.

“The temperature of the court was much cooler. When it’s like that, the ball is bouncing a bit lower, (it’s) a bit easier to control the ball. I was a bit tentative because of that.

“And I didn’t serve that well either. So you end up having to work really hard on a lot of your service games when it’s like that. It just was tough.”

Murray sat in his chair between games late in the first set loudly lambasting himself for his “shocking movement”.

“I didn’t move that well … that’s how it felt anyway,” he said.

“But sometimes that can also be down to the conditions, as well.

“The ball’s flying through the air a little bit quicker, so the ball is coming onto you faster than what it was the last few days … maybe I wasn’t reacting as quickly as I would have liked.

“But maybe also nerves there first round as well. It’s maybe normal to feel a little bit slow on your feet or a bit heavy-legged in the first round.”

Murray will face Russian qualifier Andrey Rublev in the second round.

Fellow world No.1 Angelique Kerber has survived a huge scare against Lesia Tsurenko to keep her Australian Open title defence on track.

The top-seeded German blew a match point as she lost her way midway through her round one Rod Laver Arena clash with the Ukrainian, ranked 50 places lower, but rallied to a 6-2 5-7 6-2 win.

Last year’s Australian Open win was Kerber’s breakthrough major title, before she went on to also clinch the US Open crown which elevated her to the top ranking.

The 28-year-old lived up to her billing in the opening set, breaking Tsurenko at 2-2 and then reeling off seven straight games with her power forehand doing plenty of damage.

She had the chance to wrap up the match, serving at 5-4, but was unable to close out the result with Tsurenko making her pay, levelling on her fifth set point.

Kerber said post-match that she was concerned she would pay heavily for the missed match point opportunity.

Before taking last year’s crown she was forced to fight back from a match point down in the first round against Japan’s Misaki Doi.

“I was thinking about this when I lost the second set after I had a match point,” Kerber admitted after the match.

“I was hoping it wasn’t the same … I’m so happy to be into the second round.”
Kerber will next face compatriot world No.89 Carina Witthoeft, who overcame Japanese qualifer Eri Hozumi 7-5 7-6 (8-6).