A sensible display from Andy in windy conditions gave him a comfortable 6-3 6-3 victory over Wesley Moodie in his opening match in the Masters Series. Both players found it difficult to judge how far the ball would travel through the thin air of Indian Wells. While Moodie played his usual game, serving and volleying at every opportunity and attempting to chip and charge whenever he faced a second serve, Murray adopted a more compact approach, safe serving for a high first serve percentage, few aggressive shots, returns to Moodie's feet whenever possible and plenty of measured passes.

The first few games didn't look promising but Murray put together a couple of nice passes and then put Moodie under pressure at the net to force the opening break. Moodie saved another 4 break points in his next service game with impressive serving and volleying but couldn't save a fifth, making it 5-1. Andy promptly gave away his own serve with a careless game, ultimately double faulting going for an ambitious second serve. Second time around Murray held to love.

By the second set Andy had given up any attempt at serving aggressively, simply trying to get a high percentage of first serves in play. Both players held comfortably until a beautiful lob and crisp passing shot down the line brought up the first break point of the set at 2-2. Moodie saved that one but double faulted two points later gifting Andy the break. It was soon 5-3 0-40 and while Moodie came up with two big serves, he couldn't find a third. The final score 6-3 6-3.

67% of first serves in play for Murray winning 76% behind first with 3 aces and 53% on second. Despite the stats this was an average serving display against a modest returner. The odd wide serve followed by a wrong-footing forehand for a winner but otherwise little imagination on serve.

Andy looked most comfortable with Moodie at the net, threading passing shots either side, though the execution was at times patchy, a few too many failing to clear the net. Somewhat surprisingly, Murray struggled in the baseline rallies, the high bouncing court and windy conditions combining to unsettle Andy whose groundstrokes lacked penetration. 20 winners for Murray compared to 16 unforced errors.

Overall an intelligent display, aiming to use the percentages to his advantage rather than going for anything overly ambitious. Andy made Moodie hit a lot of volleys and picked him off at the net at key moments in the match. For his part Moodie played reasonably well but despite a high first serve percentage and plenty of aggression, he suffered from being unable to return well enough to put more pressure on Murray's service games.