After the trauma of another Australian Open final near miss, Andy Murray is settling back into the ATP tour with a tournament in Rotterdam, where he is the top seed. Today he survived an ankle knock during the early stages of the second set against Canadian Vasek Pospisil at the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament, before winning his second round match against the world number 59 in straight sets 6-3 7-5.

The first set was over in just 36 minutes, as Murray needed a solitary break of service in the eighth game, to provide the advantage he required to clinch the set by serving out.

 

It was far from vintage Murray though, as he seemed to be hampered initially by his troublesome left ankle and had slipped at one stage to 5-3 behind in set two, causing him to react angrily and break his racquet. The ankle problem occurred when Murray landed awkwardly in the first game of the new set. After picking up a code violation for the racket abuse, his Scottish tenacity brought him back from the possibility of going into a third set, as he eventually battled through to take the match.

The 27-year-old Britain was assisted in his progress to the next round by his opponent's propensity for making unforced errors during the match. In total he made 26, compared to Murray's 17, which somewhat negated the brilliance that the Canadian demonstrated in terms of hitting winners during their contest (25 compared to Murray's 14).

Murray will probably just chalk it down as another tough day at the office, as he now prepares to face Gilles Simon from France, seeded eighth for the event, as the players battle it out in the quarter-finals in Holland. Simon also came through in straight sets today 6-4 6-3 against his compatriot Jeremy Chardy.

The Czech Tomas Berdych was another second-round winner today at the event, although the number three seed needed three sets before finally ousting Italy's Andreas Seppi from the competition.

Berdych had seemed to be on his way to a comfortable victory after bagelling his opponent in the first set, but Seppi rallied to take the second and force the decider. The higher seed regained his composure to win the match 6-0 3-6 6-3.