Tennis royalty takes center stage as Federer cheers Murray to victory | Wimbledon 2023

As one old master looked ahead, another advanced. Roger Federer was back at Wimbledon and nodded his approval in the royal box as Andy Murray reached the second round with a 6-3, 6-0, 6-1 win over England’s Ryan Peniston.

It was Murrays most emphatic win here since 2014 and he has since issued a bullish statement about his chances, hinting that Tuesday’s heavy rain could help him go deeper in the tournament.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve felt physically good coming into Wimbledon,” he said. I’m fit and ready for a good run. And I play well enough to beat most players in the draw if I play well.

Murray has the scheduling advantage after bad weather saw next opponent either fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas or former US Open champion Dominic Thiem withdraw from their match on Wednesday.

It was tough for the players who got rained out. But any time you get a chance to finish the match quickly and can save energy is a really positive thing. Hopefully, the deeper I get into the tournament, the fresher I will be.

When play stopped on No 2 Court, Thiem was 6-4, 3-4 ahead. But whoever comes through, Murray clearly believes in his chances of winning. And why not? Even at 36 and with that metal hip, Murray reiterates that he is among the best grass court players in the world. It’s a defiant mantra, but it also has a sense of truth.

When you bring up Novak Djokovic and the world number one, Carlos Alcaraz, who else is clearly better? Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios are injured, Daniil Medvedev and Casper Ruud seem allergic to the green stuff, and the remaining NextGen stars Holger Rune, Seb Korda, Jannik Sinner are still adjusting.

Certainly, Murray was encouraged by his first outright win at Wimbledon since 2017, and by the encouragement of the Princess of Wales and Federer.

He said it was incredible to have royalty here, and tennis royalty too, as Center Court roared its approval. Federer was asked for his assessment. Very good, he replied, more laughter and cheers.

Afterwards, Murray said he enjoyed that Federer, who he has battled here many times, was looking ahead. I didn’t think it was strange, he said. It was nice to have him there. Pete Sampras has been sitting there watching Roger and Rafa. And Rod Laver has been in a bunch of matches at the Australian Open.

There wasn’t much to be excited about in the audience, at least not at first. The two men have practiced a lot together, which perhaps helped explain the intermittent opening set to polite applause and the incessant patter of rain on the roof of Center Court.

But after serving break points at 1-1 and 2-2, Murray began to find his flow. It helped that Peniston also dished out cheap gifts with a backhand error on the tramlines securing the Murrays’ first break of the match at 4-2.

Soon Murray also had the first set to his name, but the intermittent quality was summed up by the fact that between them they had hit 10 winners and 27 unforced errors in the opening stanza. I was quite nervous at the start but when I got a break in the first set I played some good stuff. There were good signs.

Murray was certainly a different player after that. He broke right at the start of the second and ran through the set, winning it to love before winning the third 6-1. As the match went on, unforced errors, I cut them out. I was pretty ruthless at the start of the second and third set. There was no drop in intensity or anything. I got ahead early in those series, I did well.

Peniston, 27, who had rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer that initially stunted his growth as a child, deserves a lot of credit for his play. But while he has a decent grass-court pedigree for someone ranked 268 in the world. He beat two top-10 players in Ruudi and Rune last year, but he had no answers to Murray’s quiet dissection.

“I had several games where I was in my 30s, things like that and I had game points,” Peniston said. But he was relentless at every point. That’s why the result was what it was.