By Niall Clarke
- Andy Murray defeats David Goffin 6-1, 6-0
- The pair are expected to play in the Davis Cup final in three weeks’ time
- Murray will face either Richard Gasquet next
Paris, France- If that was a glimpse of what we will see in the Davis Cup final, Britain should be very optimistic. A quick, efficient and ruthless performance by Andy Murray saw off a hapless David Goffin in straight sets for the loss of only one game.
Tennis:
The second seed set the groundwork early, winning 12 of the first 13 points and breaking his opponent twice en route to a 6-1 first set.
Goffin has had a good year and is ranked 16th in the world, but the gulf in class was apparent between himself and Murray. The Brit could hardly put a foot wrong as he stormed away with the second set, not losing a single game.
“Andy was extremely efficient today,” said Goffin as reported in BBC SPORT. “This didn’t help me to get into that match. This is why that match was the way it was.
“As far as I was concerned, I thought this would be my last match of the [ATP World Tour] season, so it’s really tough to really put all your energy into it.”
The pair are set to face off in the Davis Cup final on the weekend of the 27-29 November. The event will be held in Ghent on an indoor clay court, but the win today will give Murray a huge psychological boost heading into the tie.
Many spectators were interested to see how they would match up and quite frankly the answer would be very well in favour of the Brit. The Belgian for all his effort struggled to get a foothold in the match and hit through the defence of Murray.
The head to head now reads 2-0 in favour of the 28 year old, but they have never met on clay.
“Obviously clay is seen as being my worst surface, but I still feel like I play well on that court,” said Murray as reported in BBC SPORT .
“I don’t know what speed the court’s going to be. If it’s quick, then I think that will help my serve a lot. If it’s slow, then I feel like I can track a lot of balls down on the clay, which is positive.
“But it was good for me to get the chance to play him before the Davis Cup and see his game and the speed of his shots and where he maybe makes some mistakes from and things that he likes to do.
“Obviously with the result, that’s a positive. I mean, mentally for me it’s a positive win.”
Murray will face Richard Gasquet in the quarter finals with a potential semi final against Roger Federer looming. The ninth seed defeated Kei Nishikori 7-6(3) 4-1 ret earlier in the day.
The Brit has only dropped four games in two matches so far, but the quarter final should provide a sterner test than Borna Coric and Goffin did.
The Frenchman will have the backing of the home crowd and possesses one of the best one handed backhand’s on tour. Murray however leads the head to head 6-3 and has won their past four meetings. Gasquet won their only meeting here in three sets eight years ago.
Murray and Gasquet will play their quarter final match on Friday.
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