Wimbledon: Murray breezes first round

There can't have been many matches where the winner has lost the 1st set only to go on and win 2 of the next three 6-0, 6-0. Andy Murray became (possibly) the first on that list with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 victory over world No56 Daniel Gimeno-Traver in their first-round matchup at this year's Wimbledon tournament.

The Andy Murray on display in the opening set was not the one we saw two weeks ago at Queen's Club that made Andy Roddick look like an amateur. He looked cautious, slightly rusty and couldn't make an impact on Gimeno-Traver's serve - the Spaniard holding his own comfortably and asking plenty of questions on Murray's slow second serve, hammering his forehands for multiple winners. The breakthrough came in the 9th game of the set, tied at 4-4 when Gimeno-Traver converted one of his three break-points to take full control of the first set. He went on to close it out with little in the form of a comeback from the Scot.

The second set began in the same fashion until the players reached 3-3, Murray served to lead 4-3 before breaking serve for the first time and leveling the match at 1-1 after a simple hold of serve.

The opening game of the 3rd set signaled the beginning of the end for Gimeno-Traver. Murray needed 3 break points to get where he wanted to go, but finally began dominating the match the way he should have been. The wheels were well and truly falling off the Spaniard's challenge when he fell 4-0 down and practically gave up the set 6-0.

The trainer made a quick visit as the players enjoyed an extended rest between the final two sets. There was always the risk that Gimeno-Traver would have lost his focus after quitting the previous set. The fears proved true as he was broken again in the opening game. Murray began playing some of his most beautiful tennis, every drop shot and lob was finding it's mark as the world No4 completed another 6-0 trouncing to serve up a "double-bagel" to the downhearted Spaniard.

Golf: Rory McIlroy leading US Open

After that meltdown at the Masters a few weeks ago, Rory McIlroy has found the perfect reply.

McIlroy's reaction after sinking a 113-yard
chip to move him to -11 for the tournament.

Having played through 2 rounds at Congressional Country Club, the young Northern Irishman has built a lead the size of which hasn't been seen since Tiger Woods destroyed the field at Pebble Beach US Open in 2000. After his first 36 holes, McIlroy had dropped just 2 shots to lead at 11 under par. If it were not for a double-bogey on the tricky 18th, he would have set an all-time record -13 for an 10 shot lead.

As it stands, Rory leads by some 8 shots over Heath Slocum and Y.E. Yang. It's hard to call them the leaders of the chasing pack because the pack are chasing something that's been in a different universe over the past two days.

It started off as a confident, assured performance. Then it turned into one of the best rounds of his life followed by becoming something crafted by the golfing gods as McIlroy chipped in a 113-yard from the 8th fairway. He continued the staggering performance by picking up a further 2 shots to move to an historic -13. The last player to get to -12 was Woods in '00 and he went on to win that US Open by some 15 strokes. Had he not dropped two shots on the final hole of the day we may as well begin carving his name into the famous trophy.

Many will remember McIlroy's incredible disintegration which was amazing as his play at CCC. Leading by 4 shots going into the final 9 holes of the tournament, McIlroy went on to drop 10 shots to card an 8-over-par 80 on the final day to finish some 10 shots off the eventual winner. It was an awe-inspiring display of how not to close out a tournament that included a triple-bogey at the 10th and a double-bogey at the 12th. If he contrives to throw away this tournament from this position, we can say of future repeats: "He's done a McIlroy."

For Rory's sake, hope he can hang on.