Gabashvili pulls off Murray shocker at Citi
Print Edition
Andy Murray’s 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.
“Obviously, disappointed not to close it out in the third set when I had a chance to do that,” said Murray, the first top-seeded man to lose his opening match in Washington since Ivan Lendl in 1993. “There’s things I feel I could have done better.”
In the tiebreaker, the third-ranked Murray went ahead 4-3. From there, though, he wouldn’t 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 “Tsunami” in the past, because he would “play one match great, but then I could lose to anyone”.
“When you win 7-6 in the third against Andy Murray, it’s something special,” said Gabashvili, who had won only three of 25 previous matches against top-10 opponents and called Wednesday’s victory the “100 percent” most important of his career.
Murray, who received a first-round bye, was playing his first match of the North American hardcourt circuit — 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’s 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.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
