Indisposed Murray out of Djokovic Madrid clash

ANDY Murray pulled out of his third-round clash with Novak Djokovic at the Madrid Open because of illness.

It is another unfortunate blow for the former world number one, who defeated Denis Shapovalov on Tuesday for one of the best wins of his comeback and had been looking forward to a first clash with his long-time rival for more than five years.

Murray reversed his decision to skip the clay-court season by taking a wild card for Madrid and showed impressive form, defeating Dominic Thiem in the first round and then 14th seed Shapovalov.

Provided he recovers in time, the 34-year-old must now decide whether to play in qualifying for next week’s Italian Open competition.

The French Open is still potentially on the table despite the Scot previously saying he would not play in Paris and would instead concentrate on preparing for the grass-court season.

Murray helped set British tennis history in the Spanish capital, joining Dan Evans and Cameron Norrie in making it the first time three players have reached at least the third round at the same Masters event on clay.

However, British number two Evans was beaten 7-6 (9-7) 7-5 by Andrey Rublev.

Evans broke his opponent in the first game of the match and had a set point on his serve in the tie-break but lost the opening set.

In the second set, the Briton retrieved an early break before failing to take two chances to go 5-3 up.

It proved crucial as Evans was broken at 5-5 and Rublev served out to secure victory in two hours and 28 minutes.