Fantastic four
Wimbledon 2017: Andy Murray beats Dustin Brown to join fellow Brits Jo Konta, Heather Watson and Aljaz Bedene in Wimbledon third round on historic day
World No1 beat German 6-3 6-2 6-2 to set up clash against Italian Fabio Fognini
ANDY MURRAY let Dustin Brown have his fun and then blew him off the court.
Like a showboating boxer, Brown went through his full repertoire of tricks.
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But Murray is the heavyweight tennis champion of the world and just picked him off at will, throwing in a few crowd-pleasing punches of his own before stopping the fight in double-quick time.
Murray won 6-3 6-2 6-2 in just an hour and 36 minutes to cruise through to the third round.
And although the match was short, the defending champion had to do a lot of running and it was encouraging to see how freely and quickly he was moving.
After the earlier high drama of Jo Konta’s epic win over Donna Vekic, the crowd lapped up the light relief of some truly wonderful points and moments.
Brown hit outrageous second serves, drop shots, drop volleys and lobs but couldn’t string enough of them together to worry Murray.
The world No1 accepted the brilliant winners his opponent came up with but lapped up all the unforced errors he gave in return.
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And Murray played some incredible shots of his own, especially on his way to the break of serve in the fifth game of the second set which effectively killed the match.
The defending champion will play Italy’s Fabio Fognini in the third round.
Murray said: “It’s obviously good to have more players playing in the Slams and winning matches.
“Hopefully we’ll keep going. Players like Kyle, Heather and Jo are capable of doing more than just making the third round.
“So let’s aim to go further. It’s better to set the goal as high as possible and fall short than go, ‘Yeah, we’re delighted with five or six players in the third round of a Slam’.”
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Konta’s epic 7-6 4-6 10-8 win over Donna Vekic before Murray’s match on Centre Court confirmed Britain has contenders to win BOTH singles titles.
After his own 6-3 6-2 6-2 win, Murray said: “It would be amazing if that was the case.
“Jo has played extremely well the last 18 months and she’s good enough to win here.
“It’s exciting for British fans to see players going deep in both the women’s and men’s draw.”
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After the three British wins earlier in the day, it will be the first time Britain has had four players in the last 32 of the singles events since 1997.
Kyle Edmund will make it five if he beats Gael Monfils on Thursday.
There were fears Murray would not be able to defend his Wimbledon crown this year after his recurring hip problem flared up before the tournament.
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But he insists it has not hampered him so far at SW19.
He said: "It's OK, I moved well in the first couple of matches, it has not affected me and I feel good. I hope it stays that way but so far I'm very happy."
Murray added: "I've played against two guys with tough game styles but I did very well, I concentrated very well and put a lot of returns back in play. I did not give too many free points. It's been a good start and hopefully I'll keep it going."
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