Andy Murray loses in Zhuhai but aims to improve for Beijing

Andy Murray was knocked out of the Zhuhai Championships at the last-16 stage after a three-set tussle with Australia’s Alex De Minaur.
Andy Murray of Britain hits a return against Alex de Minaur of Australia during their men's singles second round match at the Zhuhai Championships tennis tournament in Zhuhai in China's southern Guangdong province on September 26, 2019. (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUTSTR/AFP/Getty ImagesAndy Murray of Britain hits a return against Alex de Minaur of Australia during their men's singles second round match at the Zhuhai Championships tennis tournament in Zhuhai in China's southern Guangdong province on September 26, 2019. (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUTSTR/AFP/Getty Images
Andy Murray of Britain hits a return against Alex de Minaur of Australia during their men's singles second round match at the Zhuhai Championships tennis tournament in Zhuhai in China's southern Guangdong province on September 26, 2019. (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUTSTR/AFP/Getty Images

The 32-year-old had been hoping to follow up his victory over American Tennys Sandgren, his first ATP Tour singles win since January, with another success which would have taken him through to the quarter-finals.

But despite taking the opening set, and putting up a late fight against the seventh seed, Murray eventually fell 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in a contest which lasted two hours and 42 minutes.

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A nervy start cost Murray when he was broken by De Minaur in only the third game.

However, the former world No 1 recovered well and managed to level things at 3-3 before breaking his opponent again in the 10th to clinch the set. De Minaur then stepped up the pace in the second set and Murray was unable to match it.

The Australian made his presence felt with an early break and then added another in game seven, before serving out to love to take the contest into a decider.

Murray faced two more break points in the opening game but was able to keep his seventh-seeded opponent at bay this time, and the set stayed on serve until the ninth when De Minaur went 40-0 up on the Murray serve.

The Scot had no comeback this time and De Minaur punished a weak second serve to leave himself serving for the match. That proved no easy feat for the Australian, who had to fend off three break points against a determined Murray, but De Minaur managed to make his second match point count against the three-time grand slam winner.

Murray is continuing his comeback from the hip resurfacing operation he had in January and will now turn his attention to next week’s China Open, where his name will go into the draw alongside the likes of two-time French Open finalist Dominic Thiem and reigning ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev.

And, although the Scot is pleased with his performances this week, he will not be raising expectations in Beijing.

“The level in Beijing is a little bit higher in terms of the quality of players, so I’m not playing Top-20, Top-30 tennis right now, I’m probably playing 
Top-70, Top-60, sort of level,” Murray said. “So it’s not going to be that easy for me to win matches there.

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“However, I can still make a few improvements in the next couple of days. I’ll get a chance to rest from this week the next couple of days and then hopefully get a couple of good days’ practice there in Beijing and wait and see what happens with the draw.

“There’s a lot of good players there and I could play a Top-10 player in the first round, and I wouldn’t be expecting to win that match right now.”

British No 2 Dan Evans also lost his second-round match yesterday, going out in the second round at the Chengdu Open in China at the hands of Grigor Dimitrov.

Evans, back in action for the first time since the third round of the US Open, was beaten 7-5, 7-5 by the Bulgarian.

The Briton, ranked 48 in the world, missed the chance of an early break in the opening set, which went with serve until Dimitrov closed things out in game 12. Evans then found himself trailing 3-0 in the second when Dimitrov, the world No 26, held after a break before moving 5-2 ahead.

Although the 29-year-old fought back to break Dimitrov and then level at 5-5, the fourth seed took his second match-point chance to progress to the last eight, where he will face Alexander Bublik of 
Kazakhstan.