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Murray and Edmund get positive Olympic Draws

Jake Davies
Tennis

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By Jake Davies

  • Andy Murray drawn with Serbia’s Viktor Troicki in Round 1 of the Rio Olympics
  • Kyle Edmund placed against World No.92 Jordan Thompson in the first round.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRASIL – Defending champion Andy Murray and star of our latest Davis Cup campaign Kyle Edmund kick off their Olympic campaigns this weekend.

 

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Andy Murray [2] vs Viktor Troicki

The three-time grand slam winner will be extremely content with the outcome of the Olympics singles draw as he attempts to win his second Olympics gold medal, this time in Rio.

Murray avoided some medal contenders and also swerved players that have picked up Olympic medals in the past. These contenders include Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Juan Martin Del Potro and Jo Wilfried Tsonga. Both Nadal and Del Potro have had their own health problems in recent times, but Murray will understand the importance of avoiding players of this calibre in the early stages of the tournament.

The 2012 Olympic gold medalist could potentially face No.7 seed David Ferrer in the Quarter-Finals and faces the prospect of playing No.4 seed Kei Nishikori in the semi-finals if Murray successfully gets as far as that in the singles draw. Ferrer is miles from his best as he reaches the latter stages of his professional career and has had problems with a combination of injuries.

Murray starts his defence against Serbia’s Viktor Troicki who has been practicing with close friend Djokovic in the lead up to the start of the Olympic Games. Troicki has the weapons to catch Murray cold in his first match, but the Serbian is very inconsistent – something that Murray definitely is not.

Troicki has a destructive forehand that can prove effective against the best of the men’s game, but the forehand of Troicki’s is a shot that is very hit and miss. Often when he is not feeling totally comfortable on court, it is the forehand that will break down before anything else.

Murray leads the head-to-head 7-0. Troicki has only taken sets off Murray in 1 0f the 7 previous matches, which suggests that Murray has a bit of a stranglehold over his opponent.

Kyle Edmund vs Jordan Thompson

Kyle Edmund’s first round opponent is Australian No.4 Thompson, who has made some gigantic strides into the Top 100, through some positive results this year. Thompson’s journey inside the World’s Top 100 has not been a straight forward journey. In 2014, he made his first real impact at the highest level of professional tennis, where he narrowly lost a five set match to Jerzy Janowicz in the first round of the Australian Open.

Thompson has found it particularly tough to convert great performances on the Challenger circuit onto the ATP circuit. His consistency at Challenger level has contributed to Thompson reaching his career high ranking of No.88 in 2016.

Like Edmund, Thompson has a terrific forehand and looks to dictate the majority of the points and rallies with that particular shot. Thompson also possesses a big serve that has served him well in some of the bigger matches of his career thus far.

If Edmund gets past Thompson, he may face Jack Sock in the subsequent Round 2 match up. Edmund features in Djokovic’s portion of the draw.

Edmud v Thompson is scheduled not before 12:30pm (4:30pm BST) with Murray likely to be scheduled on the Sunday.