Murray sees off wasteful Istomin in Miami

Two-time Miami Open champion Andy Murray survived a scare as he overcame Denis Istomin in straight sets to reach the third round on Saturday.

There were three big seeded casualties in Miami, with Stan Wawrinka, Rafael Nadal and John Isner all crashing out at the second-round stage.

But second seed Murray was not one of them, despite presenting Istomin with five break-point opportunities, triumphing 6-3 7-5 to set up a showdown against Grigor Dimitrov.

Boasting a 9-2 win-loss record prior to taking to the court against Istomin having lost to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final, last year’s runner-up Murray hit the ground running as he broke in the opening game via a double fault.

Murray never looked back from that point and he continued where he left off in the second set with a love service game.

However, Istomin refused to surrender and the Uzbek grew in stature as the match progressed.

Having failed to execute an earlier break point and watching Murray – who expressed his anger after returning a women’s ball to the umpire – produce some clutch serves, Istomin finally converted for a 3-2 lead.

Istomin’s joy was short-lived, though, as Murray immediately broke back to love after the former fired a forehand into the net.

The 29-year-old earned another break point at 30-40 in the 10th game but he sent another forehand into the net with a 6-5 lead at his mercy – tallying 31 unforced errors to Murray’s 24.

Murray never looked back as he closed out the match in an hour, 38 minutes.