Gabashvili pulls off Murray shocker at Citi
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Andy Murray鈥檚 return to the Citi Open sure resulted in a short stay.
Seeded No. 1 and appearing at the hardcourt tuneup for the US Open for the first time in nearly a decade, the two-time major champion bowed out in his opening match with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4) loss to 53rd-ranked Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia on Wednesday night.
Murray had his chances against Gabashvili, who was limping between points on a bad left leg. Murray broke for a 5-4 lead in the third set and served for the victory. But he got broken right back, sailing a backhand long to make it 5-all.
鈥淥bviously, disappointed not to close it out in the third set when I had a chance to do that,鈥 said Murray, the first top-seeded man to lose his opening match in Washington since Ivan Lendl in 1993. 鈥淭here鈥檚 things I feel I could have done better.鈥
In the tiebreaker, the third-ranked Murray went ahead 4-3. From there, though, he wouldn鈥檛 take another point, dropping the last four against Gabashvili, who has never won a tour title and came into this match with a 9-13 record in 2015.
Gabashvili said he earned the nickname 鈥淭sunami鈥 in the past, because he would 鈥減lay one match great, but then I could lose to anyone鈥.
鈥淲hen you win 7-6 in the third against Andy Murray, it鈥檚 something special,鈥 said Gabashvili, who had won only three of 25 previous matches against top-10 opponents and called Wednesday鈥檚 victory the 鈥100 percent鈥 most important of his career.
Murray, who received a first-round bye, was playing his first match of the North American hardcourt circuit 鈥 and in his first tournament since reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon last month.
Earlier, American 8th-seed John Isner hit 17 aces, won 37 of 40 first-serve points and moved into the third round by beating Dominican Victor Estrella Burgos 6-3, 7-6 (5).
In other matches, seventh-seeded Feliciano Lopez ended Lleyton Hewitt鈥檚 last appearance at the Citi Open with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory. Next up for Lopez is Sam Groth, who eliminated ninth-seeded Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-4. Unseeded American Steve Johnson defeated 11th-seeded Bernard Tomic 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-2. Other winners included 2012 champion Alexandr Dolgopolov, Richard Gasquet, Grigor Dimitrov and Alexander Zverev.
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