Straight sets win for Murray

Tennis: Andy Murray maintained his record of never having lost before the third round at Wimbledon with a 6-3 6-3 7-5 victory…

Tennis:Andy Murray maintained his record of never having lost before the third round at Wimbledon with a 6-3 6-3 7-5 victory over Tobias Kamke on Court One.

The 24-year-old stamped his authority on the second-round match from the off and cruised through the first two sets before Kamke made a contest of it in the third.

However, the German eventually cracked and Murray served out for victory, to set up a meeting with either Ivan Ljubicic or Sergiy Stakhovsky on Friday.

The fourth seed felt there was room for improvement, saying: "I served well. The rest of it is going to need some work. It was quite tricky with the wind and he was hitting the ball really hard and flat, which made it difficult to get into a rhythm.

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"I felt like I was a little upright on the court, I didn't move that well. It was a good workout for me and I'm glad to get through in straight sets."

The home hope had given his supporters a scare by losing the opening set of his first-round clash to Daniel Gimeno-Traver but he could not have made a better start here.

As if Kamke was not a big enough underdog, the German had to contend with an overrule on his first serve and then a tumble before two double-faults handed Murray a break.

Kamke is 25 but a relative novice on the biggest stage who rose 187 places in the rankings last season to win the ATP World Tour Newcomer of the Year award.

It was not surprising then that he seemed a little nervous but, after saving another break point to get on the board, he relaxed and began to take the game to the fourth seed.

Kamke, the world number 83, had come through qualifying to reach the third round at Wimbledon last year but he had no answer when Murray stepped up the pace in the ninth game to clinch the set with a second break.

Kamke was certainly not holding back, with one smash virtually from one baseline to the other drawing gasps from the crowd, and his positive approach was serving him reasonably well.

Murray had a couple of chances to break early in the second set but could not take them, and he dug himself out of a hole of his own making in the seventh game after a double fault handed his opponent a first break point.

Kamke was made to regret that missed opportunity moments later when he fired a forehand wide to hand the Scot a break, and some big serving helped him move two sets in front.

Murray was not hitting the heights that had helped him win 15 games in a row to beat Gimeno-Traver on Monday, but he had not needed to against an opponent who was making just too many mistakes.

Kamke stepped up a level in the third set, trading blow for blow with the world number four off the ground and holding his serve reasonably comfortably.

Murray was beginning to look frustrated that he could not finish the match off, but the breakthrough he needed came in the 11th game thanks to an untimely Kamke double-fault, and there was no way back for the German.