Murray runs out of gas vs Frances
Los Angeles, Aug. 25: Former World No.1 Andy Murray was ousted from the ATP Winston-Salem event on Tuesday, falling to American Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 in a second round match at Wake Forest University.
The 34-year-old Murray has been battling injuries of late, including a groin problem that has limited his time on the court this season and resulted in him needing one of the four wild card spots to get into the Winston-Salem draw.
Tiafoe advances to the third round of the hardcourt tournament where he will face either Thiago Monteiro or Eduardo Nava.
“The positive thing is that I moved well and served well but my level is up and down with no real consistency,” Murray said.
“There are moments in matches where I play well and then I make mistakes or miss returns. I wish I wasn’t doing that, he further added.
Murray cruised through his opening round match winning in straight sets against lucky loser Noah Rubin, who was a last minute replacement for Nick Kyrgios.
Rubin ran out of gas against Murray after having just an hour rest between his two-hour qualifying final and his main draw match.
Murray had no such luck against Tiafoe, who dismantled the Scot with a strong all around service game.
Tiafoe blasted three aces, won 76 percent of his first serve points and 65 percent of his second serve points in a one hour, 49 minute contest.
The pair had met just once before with Murray winning a three set thriller last year in Cincinnati.
Murray now heads to the US Open, where he won the first of his three Grand Slam titles in 2012.
The 23-year-old Tiafoe has had a productive couple of weeks during the American hardcourt swing. He reached the third round at the Toronto Masters and followed up with a win over Ugo Humbert in Cincinnati.
Also, Hungarian fourth seed Marton Fucsovics beat Japan’s Yosuke Watanuki 7-5, 6-1 and Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland upset fifth seeded Alexander Bublik 6-2, 7-6 (7/5). —