The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Murray’s struggles continue as he is sent tumbling at the Italian Open
World No 1 crashes out in straight-sets against Fognini
World No 1 Andy Murray suffered another early exit as he lost 6-2 6-4 against Fabio Fognini at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome last night.
Murray, who turned 30 on Monday, continues to struggle for consistency on his return from an elbow injury, having reached the semi-finals in Barcelona only to then be knocked out of the Madrid Open by Croatia’s Borna Coric, the world no 41.
Fognini delighted the partisan home crowd in the late-night contest under the floodlights when the world No 29 broke Murray in the opening game and went on to take a 3-0 lead before closing out the set 6-2 with a love service.
Murray, the defending champion, found himself kept under pressure in the second set, when his serve failed again as Fognini opened up a 4-1 advantage.
There was a brief recovery by Murray as a break and a hold saw him trail 4-5.
Fognini, though, maintained his dominance to serve out victory and secure a first win over a world no 1.
British No 3 Aljaz Bedene put in a valiant effort against world no 2 Novak Djokovic before falling to a 7-6 (7/2) 6-2 second-round defeat.
The 27-year-old started the match in positive fashion with a break in the opening game but handed that advantage straight back in the next before the pair shared the following 10 games to take the set into a tie-break.
Djokovic dominated the early exchanges to race into a 5-0 lead before Bedene finally got on the board with a powerful forehand but he could not prevent the Serbian from winning the first set.
A break in the first game of the second set put Djokovic in the ascendency and another in the fifth game put the world no 2 4-1 up before he won two of the next three games to seal his place in the third round.
There were first round wins for Tommy Hass, Alexander Zverev and David Ferrer, while Josh Isner and David Goffin notched up second round victories.