ANDY CAN’T GET A TUNE OUT QATAR
ANDY MURRAY mouthed “this game is not for me any more” during his demoralising Qatar Open loss to Jakub Mensik.
The three-time Grand Slam champion’s ominous message to his box came after spurning a vital break point in the second set.
Murray lost two out of three tie-breaks against 18-year-old Mensik as his Doha adventure ended at the last-16 stage.
The Scot set up his match with 116th-ranked Mensik courtesy of a win over Alexandre Muller on Tuesday – his first victory since October.
But Murray’s relief did not last long as he crashed out 6-7 7-6 6-7.
The 36-year-old rolled his ankle at the start of the match but is not expecting any more time off through injury. Murray said: “Ankle feels OK. I just got a little bit light-headed. The very first point when we started running and I lost balance.
“It wasn’t a bad roll. I just felt a bit dizzy on the first point. When I ran up to that ball I lost my footing a bit. But the ankle is fine.
“It was a fairly balanced match and had I got through the first set, I’d have got more momentum.”
Czech Mensik moves on to the quarter-finals of the competition and will take on Andrey Rublev, the tournament’s No.1 seed.
Mensik said: “I’m just speechless right now.
“I know that a lot of the fans wanted Andy to win, so hopefully they’ll come to watch my match tomorrow. I’m just happy to have got the result.”
Mensik had played some scintillating tennis in the first set but lost his nerve when he tried to serve it out at 5-4, with Murray breaking back.
It went to a tie-break and Murray blew a big chance when he had two set points before he went on to lose the next four points and the set.
The second set went to another tie-break and this time Murray did not mess about to level up.
Mensik broke twice to lead 5-2 on the decider.
But the Scot, who is playing with a metal hip, unlocked prime Murray mode and won four successive games, including two where Mensik was serving the match.
The youngster stopped the rot to send it to a deciding tie-break and picked himself up to claim a memorable scalp.