TENNIS: INDIAN WELLS WOE FOR MURRAY
It’s another surprise defeat in stuttering season for world No 1
WErE it not for his saving of seven match points in the Dubai quarterfinal, we might be talking about a slightly alarming start to the season for andy Murray.
The Scot’s eventual winning of the Dubai title means there need be no panic, even after his shock defeat to world No 129 Vasek Pospisil at the BNP Paribas Open in indian wells yesterday.
Murray was at a loss to explain a 6-4, 7-6 defeat in his first-round match. So far, 2017 is not quite going to plan for the world No1, who has missed a big chance to increase his lead over Novak Djokovic at the top of the rankings.
late last night, Djokovic was due to play Britain’s Kyle Edmund in his opening match. Earlier on, Dan Evans lost in the second round 6-3, 6-4 to world No 5 Kei Nishikori and Jo Konta, returning from a foot injury, was beaten 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 by France’s Caroline Garcia.
Two factors put the Murray defeat into context. The first is that Pospisil, a former wimbledon quarter-finalist, is a much better player than his ranking might suggest, as he showed early last month by winning both his matches for Canada against Britain in the Davis Cup first round.
Secondly, Murray has, by his standards, a relatively poor record in the southern California desert of indian wells, where the ball flies through the dry air. he has lost early there in four out of the last seven years.
Murray said: ‘i don’t know exactly why it is because in practice i normally play pretty well.
‘Some years i’ve played well. Some years it just hasn’t quite happened for me. i don’t know if it’s the conditions but i haven’t played my best over the years.’
Murray expressed the desire to head swiftly to his second home of south Florida to prepare for next week’s Miami Open, although he was still in the indian wells doubles event alongside Evans. his response to problems is always to try and work harder, but it looks like he has still to fully get over the exertions required to reach the top ranking position late last year. he barely took a fortnight off before getting into what is reliably said to have been a heavy December training block in Florida, at the behest of coach ivan lendl. a particular surprise has been that his two upsets this year — he also lost to Mischa Zverev at the australian Open — have come against players who attack the net. This style of play is usually low hanging fruit for Murray.
Caroline wozniacki has become the latest high-profile player to join Murray in criticising the help being given to Maria Sharapova when she comes back from her doping ban next month.
Sharapova is being allowed to play in Stuttgart’s wTa event when her ban is still in place at the start of that week.
‘i think it’s very questionable allowing — no matter who it is — a player who is still banned to play a tournament that week,’ said wozniacki. ‘From the tournament side, it’s disrespectful to the other players and the wTa.’