Verdasco extends Murray’s losing run at Cologne Indoors
COLOGNE, Germany, Oct 14, (AP): Andy Murray suffered another firstround elimination, this time at the Cologne Indoors at the hands of outof-form veteran Fernando Verdasco.
Verdasco exploited Murray’s fragile serve to win 6-4, 6-4 in a match which finished after midnight German time. Verdasco, at 36 one of the few players older than the 33-year-old Murray in the tournament, broke Murray’s serve four times – once to love and three times to 15.
Murray lost in the second round of the US Open and in the first round of the French Open. He used wild cards for both of those Grand Slam tournaments and again in Cologne for his first loss on an indoor hard court since the 2015 tour finals.
Verdasco ended a four-match losing run going back to January in the Australian Open. It was the Spanish player’s second match since the tour resumed amid the coronavirus pandemic, his first being a one-sided loss to Damir Dzumhur in qualifying for the Rome Masters last month.
Verdasco will take on top-seeded Alexander Zverev in the second round after the German player had a bye in the first round.
Eighth-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic had to dig deep to avoid a first-round elimination as he beat Marcos Giron 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Giron had lost in qualifying and was a late replacement after Cilic’s initial opponent Ricardas Berankis withdrew.
Cilic next plays Alejandro Davidovich Fokina after the Spanish player won 7-5, 6-4 against Finnish qualifier Emil Ruusuvuori.
Another British player was eliminated as Kyle Edmund lost a tight match 7-5, 7-6 (1) to big-serving South African Lloyd Harris, who hit eight aces. Harris’ reward is a second-round match with US player Steve Johnson.
The second-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut will take on Gilles Simon in the second round after the veteran French player swept past Marton Fucsovics 6-0, 6-3. Bautista Agut has a firstround bye.
In St Petersburg, Russia, Andrey Rublev swept past Vasek Pospisil 6-2, 6-4 at the St Petersburg Opento win his first match since breaking into the top 10 on the back of strong showings at the US Open and French Open.
The 22-year-old Russian had to rely on his second serve to beat Pospisil after landing just 46 percent of first serves in the opening set. He plays either Ugo Humbert of France or Russian qualifier Pavel Kotov in the second round.
Rublev is seeded third in St Petersburg and entered the top 10 of the ATP rankings Monday, helped by recent runs to the quarter-finals of the US Open and French Open, as well as winning the Hamburg title last month.
There will be an all-Russian secondround match after fourth-seeded Karen Khachanov beat Australian James Duckworth 6-4, 6-4 to set up a meeting with wild card Aslan Karatsev.
Milos Raonic hammered in 21 aces to beat US qualifier J.J. Wolf 7-6 (5), 6-1 in the first round as he started his latest bid to end his near five-year wait for a title.
Raonic had to save five set points at 5-4 down in the first set, and then won the set in the tie-break on his third set point. The sixth-seeded Canadian plays Alexander Bublik in the second round.
Raonic won the St Petersburg title in 2015 and another in Brisbane in January 2016. However, he is 0-7 in finals since then, most recently when he lost to Novak Djokovic for the Cincinnati title in August.
Seventh-seeded Borna Coric beat the Spanish veteran Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 7-6 (2).