MURRAY MISERY AS HOPES OF LONG RUN OVER
ANDY MURRAY admitted he made ‘way too many errors’ as his Australian Open came to a surprising end with a limp second-round defeat to world No.120 Taro Daniel.
Hopes were high Murray could have another strong run Down Under when he ground out a five-set win over the seeded Nikoloz Basilashvili in round one, three years after it appeared his career had come to a premature end in Melbourne.
But, back on John Cain Arena, the feeling was very different this time as Murray struggled for sharpness against a tenacious opponent and fell to a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 defeat.
Japan’s Daniel had won just five games over three sets in their only previous meeting in the Davis Cup in 2016 but Murray, whose heavy workload also included reaching the final of the ATP Tour event in Sydney last weekend, began sluggishly and was unable to turn the tide in his favour.
He had never lost to a player ranked outside the top 100 at a slam, with then world No. 91 Arnaud Clement the previous lowest in the second round of the US Open in 2005.
At 28, Daniel has spent much of his career hovering around the 100 mark but it is an indication of the depth in the game that he is an extremely solid and capable player, and deceptively quick around the court.
Murray said: ‘I made way too many errors today. There is maybe some reasons for that but he was solid the whole match. Didn’t give me too many errors which, to be fair, was what I was expecting from him. He moves well, and he’s very consistent. He doesn’t give matches to you.’
After dropping serve twice in the opening set, Murray saw four break points come and go in the second game of the second set – the Scot took only two of 11 in the match – and again it was Daniel that came up with the answers in big moments.
Murray finally moved ahead early in the third but surrendered his advantage straight away and the end was nigh when Daniel broke for 5-4.
The Briton had a warning for slamming his racket angrily to the court, and Daniel clinched his second match point to move into the third round of a slam for the first time.
There is now just one British player left in the singles, with Dan Evans moving into the men’s third round without hitting a ball.
Evans had been due to play Arthur Rinderknech but received a walkover prior to the start when the Frenchman withdrew with a wrist injury.