Murray suffers early exit

ANDY Murray endured a frustrating start to the year as he was beaten by world No 76 Facundo Bagnis in the first round of the Melbourne Summer Series.

The 34-year-old Scot produced an error-strewn display as he fell 6-3 5-7 6-3 to Bagnis, leaving him with plenty of work to do ahead of this month’s Australian Open.

Murray had harboured hopes of making a competitive start to 2022 after reaching the final of an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi in December, where he was beaten by Andrey Rublev, but those hopes evaporated in a disappointing display which left the Scot slamming his racket into his bench.

Bagnis took the first set, but Murray responded well with a dominant second to level matters.

However, Murray was afflicted by a poor ball toss and dreadful second-serve percentage, enabling Bagnis to grab the crucial break in the fifth game of the final set before serving out to take the match.

Murray has accepted a wild card into the Australian Open.

GREAT Britain were blown away by Canadian young guns Felix AugerAliassime and Denis Shapovalov as they slumped to defeat in their second group match at the ATP Cup.

Dan Evans had given Britain a dream start when he overcame world No 14 Shapovalov in the singles opener, but British No 1 Cameron Norrie was then beaten by Auger-Aliassime, who is ranked one place higher than him at 11 in the world.

The match went down to the deciding doubles rubber, but AugerAliassime and Shapovalov swept aside Britain’s Jamie Murray and Joe Salisbury in straight sets.

Andy Murray