Gulbis tennis

The 2009 US Open Tennis tournament began yesterday, and some good games have already been played. Britain’s Andy Murray play Latvian Ernests Gulbis in the first round of the US Open.

Murray Uses Patient Game to Beat Big-hitting Gulbis. Andy Murray played a patient, steady game to defeat big-hitting Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 7-5 6-3 7-5.

In the first set, Murray traded baseline blows with 95th-ranked Gulbis and the Latvian responded with wild misses and blistering winners and pushed the Scotsman to five set points before finally succumbing to a service break in the 12th game.

Andi Murray, runner-up last year (the champ was Roger Federer) in his first grand slam final, then varied his attack by mixing in forays to the net and took advantage of mounting mistakes from Gulbis, who had 51 unforced errors, 30 more than Murray.

Murray advanced to a second-round match against 87th-ranked Paul Capdeville of Chile.

The only two male tennis players who are believed to travel regularly on private jets are Roger Federer, the world No 1, the US Open champion for the past five seasons and the greatest racket-swinger of all time, and Ernests Gulbis, the world No 95 from Latvia.