MURRAY MISERY
Scot well beaten by old foe to bring retirement step closer
ANDY MURRAY suffered a third consecutive brutal defeat by Stan Wawrinka at the French Open – and this one will be the last here to the Swiss star.
The Scot lost a five-set epic to his fellow triple Grand Slam event champion in the 2017 semi-final and in straight sets in the first round in 2020.
Last night former world No.1 Murray went down to another crushing defeat, 6-4 6-4 6-2 in only 2hrs 19mins under the unforgiving lights of Court Philippe-Chatrier.
During the embarrassingly onesided third set, it was sad to see this great champion simply destroyed on one of the game’s great stages.
Before the match, the 2016 finalist here had insisted he has yet to make a decision over his retirement this summer.
After a second consecutive firstround defeat in a Grand Slam tournament, his retirement came another step closer.
Murray recovered from ruptured ankle ligaments in March and played here with a new Yonex racket. But the outcome was the same and he has still to get past the third round in 14 Grand Slam events since his title defence at the 2017 Wimbledon ended in the quarter-finals.
There will be no Battle of Britain in the second round, with 2015 champion Wawrinka playing the winner of the match between Cam Norrie and Russian world No.56 Pavel Kotov.
Murray will still play the doubles with Dan Evans as preparation for the Olympics here later in the summer. After a last Wimbledon, it could be his final appearance. The first Sunday night session here saw a clash of two old war horses – and the second oldest in terms of age in Open history at Roland Garros.
Wawrinka lit up the main court with his brilliant winners and the one-sided win was never in doubt.
Murray started slowly and was broken in his opening service game and Wawrinka took his third set point after 53 minutes when the
Scot chipped a defensive lob into the tramlines. The Swiss broke in the third game of the second set and completed the set with an ace.
Wawrinka raced into a 4-0 lead after only 15 minutes of the third set with another ace.
The coup de grace came mercifully when the Swiss took his first match point with a final backhand winner down the line – his 35th winner.
Jack Draper is in a race against time to find his serve and game for Wimbledon after blowing the chance of a glamour clash with Carlos Alcaraz.
The British No.2 battled back from two sets and 0-3 down to force a decider against world No.176 Jesper De Jong.
But Draper dropped a series of F-bombs along with his serve at 3-4 after sending down a horrible ninth double-fault on break point, going down 7-5 6-4 6-7 3-6 6-3 in 4hrs 6mins.
Draper said: “Very frustrated.This loss hurts a lot. I know I’m so much better than how I played and that’s what hurts.”
Dutchman De Jong will face Alcaraz in the second round after the world No.3 passed the fitness test on his forearm by taming lucky loser JJWolf 6-1 6-2 6-1.