Andy Murray was handed a surprise boost moments before his straight-sets win over Sam Groth as the Australian revealed he had never played before in Rod Laver Arena.
Groth took 43 minutes even to register a game against Murray, who strolled into the Australian Open third round with a 6-0 6-4 6-1 victory at Melbourne Park.
The result extends Murray's unbeaten run against Australian players to 15 official matches and sets up a round three meeting with Joao Sousa, the 32nd seed from Portugal.
Groth, ranked 67th in the world, lives in Melbourne and was born in nearby Narrandera but the local favourite gave Murray a timely confidence boost before the match, when he revealed Australia's most famous court would be a new experience for him.
Murray said: "I don't know why, I was standing right next to him in the locker room and he said to someone, 'this is my first time on Rod Laver, I've never even hit on here before' and I was like, 'OK great, that's good for me'."
The Scot continued: "Was I surprised he said it? A little bit. I mean, we were right next to each other in the locker room literally sitting a metre or so away.
"I think it was Mark Woodforde who asked him and he just said, 'No, first time I've ever been out there. First time I even practised on it today.'
"That surprised me. I thought he would have hit on it at least once or twice before."
Groth boasts the fastest recorded serve in the world at 263 kilometres per hour and he announced ahead of the match he would go all-out attack against Murray with pace, power and serve and volley.
The strategy, however, proved disastrous as the world number two won 31 out of Groth's 46 ventures to the net and broke his opponent's serve seven times in total.
"I know he can serve better than that. He doesn't just hit the sort of big serves. He can use different spins and stuff," Murray said.
"I think he actually is better from the back of the court than he thinks he is. I don't think he maybe needs to serve and volley as much as he does, because, you know, from the back he hits the ball well too."
Murray had never played Groth before in singles but he had faced him in a doubles match, when he played alongside brother Jamie in September's Davis Cup semi-final.
"It helps to see someone's game. I never hit with him or played against him at all, apart from that match in the Davis Cup," Murray said.
"You see what he's like up at the net maybe, which side he volleys better off, which side he returns better off. In doubles, I think you can often get a better idea of that than in singles."
Murray now faces Sousa, whom he has played six times and won on each occasion.
"He's a very good mover," Murray said.
"He's a good athlete and he wins. He knows how to win matches. He understands the game well and he gets the most out of his game."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel