MX23RW : Thursday, December 19 04:37:37| >> :600:301689948:301689948:

Andy Murray: 'Time violations difficult to avoid'

Andy Murray insists that he "was not annoyed" to be flagged up for violating the 20-second limit between points, as he beat Joao Sousa in round two of the French Open.

Andy Murray has insisted that he has no complaints over twice being penalised for exceeding the 20-second limit between points.

The British number one got the better of Joao Sousa to advance into the third round of the French Open on Thursday evening, but the win did not come without a brief controversial moment.

Umpire Pascal Maria felt that Murray had waited too long before serving in the fourth game of the third set - his second such offence in the match - which cost him a fault.

Murray acknowledges that the rules are in place to help the sport flow, but he believes that it can sometimes be difficult to avoid violations.

"I wasn't annoyed with the time thing at all, I made no issue of it on the court," he is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail. "I think it's there for a reason. Sometimes I play too slow and that's unintentional. I don't mean to do it.

"But obviously as a player you have no idea how long you're taking in between the points and people can say, 'Oh, they do, they play tennis', but the reality is things happen sometimes.

"You don't get the ball in time or the towel in time. Or the second one that I got, genuinely I was up at the line in good time, but they were showing the highlights from the point before, so I didn't serve. So sometimes things like that make it tougher for the players but there were points today where I got told I was playing too slow and I should try to speed up. And I did."

Murray will now take on Nick Kyrgios at Roland Garros on Saturday.

ID:225415: cacheID:225415:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:2608:
Written by
Daniel Lewis
No Data Analysis info
Restore Data
Share this article now:
Andy Murray plays a forehand stroke during his French Open fourth round match against Fernando Verdasco at Roland Garros on June 2, 2014
Read Next:
Live Commentary: Andy Murray vs. Joao Sousa - as it happened
>
rhs 2.0
Today's games header


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
Argentina's Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy after collecting the Golden Ball award on December 18, 2022Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!