Andy Murray suffers shock defeat at Miami Open to world No. 76 Dusan Lajovic as more Brits tumble
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Updated 22/03/2023 at 22:47 GMT
Andy Murray had shown encouraging signs of a rebirth at the start of 2023, but that was brought to a juddering halt at the Miami Open as the Brit went down in straight sets, 6-4 7-5, to the unheralded Dusan Lajovic. Murray looked strangely out of sorts throughout, and never really threatened a comeback for which he has become so famed. Emma Raducanu also lost to cap a miserable day for the Brits.
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Andy Murray suffered a shock defeat at the Miami Open to world No. 76 Dusan Lajovic in a performance that brought a halt to his strong performances so far in 2023.
Murray has looked fitter and hungrier this year, and that has been borne out in some good results.
But his 6-4 7-5 loss to Lajovic showed few of his best qualities, as the Serbian made it through in more straightforward fashion than he might have expected.
Murray might have a reputation as a marathon man so far this season after a series of long matches, but he looked in no mood to hang around early on against Lajovic, breezing through his first game and then forcing a break point opportunity at 2-1 up.
But that went begging - as did another in Lajovic's next service game - and perhaps with some frustration in mind, Murray was then broken to love, as Lajovic took a sudden grip on the match as he moved 4-3 ahead.
His accurate serving then took him to the set, as Murray just couldn't make any inroads from the back of court on either of Lajovic's subsequent service games.
If Murray was going to do it, it would be via another three-set comeback, and he got off to the perfect start in set two with a swift hold.
The pair traded games thereafter as the match drifted towards the conclusion of the set, but again Murray blinked just when he couldn't afford to, with Lajovic breaking to go 5-4 ahead, and go one game from the match.
But as you can always expect with Murray, he wasn't going to make it easy for the Serbian, and rushed to 15-30.
That became break point for Murray as it was Lajovic who tightened up with a double fault, his first of the second set.
And when Murray rifled a forehand up the line in the next point, his opponent could only find the net, triggering an outpouring of emotion from Murray as he saw a belated route back into the match.
But Murray just couldn't shake off the strange malaise that had afflicted him during the encounter, and there was trouble again when he served at 5-5, with Lajovic forcing a break point and Murray only able to net a limp backhand.
The former world No. 1 - who had thrown his racket earlier in the game - slumped on his racket and looked crestfallen as he made his way to the changeover.
And on the resumption, regretfully for the Brit, there was no way back this time as Lajovic took the set, and with it the match to cap a miserable afternoon for Murray.
It was a difficult day all round for the British contingent playing on Wednesday in Florida as Kyle Edmund exited - also in straight sets, 7-5 7-5 - to China's Wu Yibing.
Edmund battled back from 5-2 down in the first set only to be broken at 5-6 down, and then - remarkably - the same happened in the second set, with Edmund recovering from 5-2 down to 5-6, but was broken again as the match agonisingly slipped away.
In the women's draw Emma Raducanu also lost, the 20-year-old succumbing to Bianca Andreescu in three sets.
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