Andy Murray utterly outplayed his second opponent, Sam Groth, in Melbourne on Wednesday night, moving into round three of the Australian Open with a highly impressive return performance. The world number two extended his streak of tour wins over Australians to seventeen in a match he never looked like losing, as he joined Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the third round.
Groth out-served by Murray
Sam Groth holds the record for the fastest serve at 163mph, but was even out-served by Murray, the Scot hitting ten aces to Groth's six, winning 86% of his first-serve points to Groth's 59%. Groth was helpless to stop his serve being broken a total of seven times, taking until the tenth game of the match to hold serve.
At one stage Groth challenged his own serve rather than face Murray's stinging return but, as with seemingly everything else during the match, he was unsuccessful.
Murray's serve, by contrast, was totally impenetrable for the Australian. He lost just a single point on serve in the first set - a set during which Groth failed to hit even a single ace against a barrage of Murray passing shots and return winners. It took the world number two just 30 minutes to wrap up the first set, 6-0.
Closer second set
The second set looked to be going the same way as the first as Murray got out to a 3-0 lead, before Groth finally got himself on the scoreboard by holding his serve. As Murray's concentration slipped somewhat, Groth managed his sole break to level the set at 4-4, but it was a momentary lapse from Murray, and Groth found himself being broken again for the set.
Groth never got a look-in during set three, as he was broken twice more to give up the set 6-1. During the final game things only got worse for him, as he seemed to twist his ankle painfully attempting to reach a low ball.
Murray's 6-0 6-4 6-1 victory was wrapped up in 90 minutes, and the four-time runner up will move on to face Joao Sousa in round three. Sousa has taken just one set off Murray in six meetings so far.
This was Murray on top form, and if he continues to play like this, he will be feeling good about his chances of reaching a fifth final in Melbourne.