Murray starts impressively

Andy Murray made short work of Olympic champion Nicolas Massu to get his Wimbledon campaign up and running in some style on Centre Court this evening.

The 19-year-old Scot produced a dazzling array of searing ground strokes and delightful drop shots to bewilder his Chilean opponent and claim a 6-1 6-4 6-4 victory.

Revelling in his return to Centre Court after last year’s heroic third round defeat to David Nalbandian, Murray charged through the first set in just 23 minutes.

While Murray’s superb range of strokes put him in total control Massu looked a shadow of the player who secured double Olympic gold in 2004.

The 19-year-old Scot broke his opponent to love in his opening service game and coasted into a 5-0 lead before the world number 33 Massu belatedly managed to get a game on the board.

Murray appeared entirely unperturbed by the pressure on his shoulders this year as he served out to take the lead under darkening SW19 skies.

Murray continued to make short work of Massu’s feeble challenge when a double fault presented him with another break in the third game of the second set.

Looking completely ill at ease in the grass court conditions, Massu continued to struggle to hold his serve and had to save another break point chance in the seventh game.

Two fabulous forehand winners gave Murray his first set point on the Massu serve at 5-3 and while the Chilean wriggled out of it on that occasion, Murray made no mistake one game later to take the set 6-4.

Murray’s dominance slipped slightly in the second game of the third set when he served two double faults and had to survive three break points before levelling matters at 1-1.

After that it was relatively plain sailing as Murray broke for 2-1 and again for 4-1 to move to the brink of victory.

Bizarrely Murray dropped his serve for the first time when he served for the match, but he managed to get it right second time around to wrap up a thoroughly convincing win.