Wimbledon

Andy Murray defends use of cheeky underarm serve in Wimbledon opener against James Duckworth

Andy Murray defended the use of the underarm serve he deployed during his first-round win at Wimbledon over Australia's James Duckworth.

After his 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4 victory, Murray explained in his post-match press conference that the decision to use the uncommon shot, more often used by his friend and fellow tennis star Nick Kyrgios, was a tactical one.

Funnily enough, Murray's execution of the serve wasn't especially pinpoint, with the shot too high and too long, but he won the point regardless.

"He [Duckworth] changed his return position, that's why I did it," Murray told reporters. "He was standing very close to return. He was struggling a little bit on the first-serve return, so he stepped probably two meters further back. As soon as I saw him step further back, I threw the underarm serve in.

"I personally have no issue with players using it. I never have. Certainly, more and more players have started returning from further, further behind the baseline now to give themselves an advantage to return.

"The underarm serve is a way of saying, 'If you're going to step back there, then I'm going to possibly throw that in.'"

There seems to be the unusual notion among a small minority of tennis fans that the underarm serve is in some way disrespectful to the opposing player.

Murray disagrees.

"I don't know why people have ever found it potentially disrespectful," he said. "I've never understood that. It's a legitimate way of serving. I would never use an underarm serve if someone was standing on the baseline because I think it's a stupid idea because they're going to track it down and it's easy to get.

"If they stand four or five meters behind the baseline, then why would you not do that to try to bring them forward if they're not comfortable returning there? Tactically, it's a smart play. No one says it's disrespectful for someone to return from six meters, whatever, five meters behind the baseline to try to get an advantage.

"So I used it not to be disrespectful to him but to say: 'If you're going to step further back to return the serve to give yourself more time, then I'm going to exploit that.'"

WIMBLEDON, England -- Novak Djokovic's play was not particularly, well, Djokovic-esque, at Wimbledon on Monday.

Even he acknowledged as much.

He got broken early and trailed 3-1 as he began his bid for a fourth consecutive championship and seventh overall at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. He recovered to take that set, then dropped the next. He slipped and fell to the grass. He accumulated more unforced errors than his opponent. Maybe he was a bit under the weather; he grabbed tissues from a black box on the sideline and blew his nose. Maybe he was simply a bit off, not having played a match that mattered in nearly a full month.

This, though, is the top-seeded Djokovic, and there's a reason he extended his winning streak at the All England Club to 22, and his career victory total there to 80 -- making him the first player in tennis history with at least that many at each major -- by beating Soonwoo Kwon of South Korea 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 at Centre Court under the retractable roof.

And there's a reason that friends of the wife of Kwon's coach, Daniel Yoo, held up decorated signs in a player guest box bearing Korean messages that Yoo said meant "Fight!" and "Don't get hurt!"

So Kwon walked on court jittery. But after just two games, the 81st-ranked Kwon said through Yoo's translation, "I felt like, 'Oh, this is doable. ... I can hang with him a little bit.