Murray may struggle on handicap

Ernests Gulbis is more than capable of giving Andy Murray a fright in their second-round clash at Wimbledon on Thursday and as such makes some appeal at 11-10 with Paddy Power receiving a handicap start of 6.5 games.

The Latvian took a set off the British No.1 at Queen’s last year when Murray upset his opponent by calling a medical time-out when the scores were tied at five-all in the third set.

Gulbis blamed fatigue for a tame surrender to Murray in St Petersburg in October and attributes a slide down the rankings (he has fallen from 38 to 74) to him concentrating on his physique rather than his tennis.

The 20-year-old, who was the only player to take a set off Rafael Nadal during the Spaniard’s progress to last year’s final, eased past the Italian Riccardo Ghedin 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 in his first-round match.

Murray did not enjoy things his own way when overcoming American Robert Kendrick in four sets on Tuesday, being forced to dig deep before closing out a 7-5, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 victory.

He is no better than 1-12 to progress to the last 32 — Gulbis is as big as 9-1 with Boylesports — but may have to work harder than those odds imply.

Comments

[Derek Clifton]

The bookies will do anything to extract a bit of cash from our pockets. At 1 - 12 Mr Murrey looks cut and dried but I am not so sure. He is a petulant young man - easily upset and often spits the dummy so look out for a few suprises here. He may win but not as easily as a 1 - 12 shot should - perhaps!