Andy Murray Shocked In Washington Opener, Madison Keys Crashes Out Of Stanford
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It was a day of upsets across the two tours on Wednesday. First in Washington where top seed Andy Murray suffered his earliest loss in over two years since Rome 2013 falling to Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4) in his opening hardcourt match of the summer.
“I normally back myself to return a little bit better than I did. I think in the tie-break I don’t think I put one return in the court when he was serving. I feel like I didn’t do a good enough job of putting enough first serve points in the court,” Murray said.
“It’s obviously a disappointing match to lose but it wasn’t like I was blown off the court in a match that I had no chance of winning. I feel like I put myself in a position to win the match. It was the first hard-court match for four-and-a-half months with only four or five days of preparation so I was happy with how I moved and did certain things on court.
“But there are some things for me to improve and hopefully with a few more days and having that match under my belt I’ll be able to make some improvements for the next few weeks.”
Washington is headquarters of Murray’s clothing sponsor Under Armour. The Brit who arrived at the Capital last Tuesday was playing Washington for the first since 2006. Murray will look ahead to Montreal next week and then Cincinnati.
The Russian Gabashvili collected just his second career Top 5 victory.
“I was exhausted at the end because my body was really tired but I learnt to play good points and I learnt to play aggressive and without any fear because you have to fight for every point,” Gabashvili said.
“I’m confident now and for sure this helped me in this match and also in the first round against Benjamin Becker, which was really difficult. I knew if I just played confident and try my weapons and let’s see how it goes and it went to my side. The past three years I’ve become more confident in my play. Last year it was the best year in my career and this helped me to improve more this year.”
Also tumbling were Viktor Troicki, Bernard Tomic, Ivo Karlovic, Lleyton Hewitt, Pablo Cuevas and Kevin Anderson, who lost to 18-year-old Alexander Zverev 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
“First day I hit on a hard court was Saturday so I’m really happy the way I’m playing for those circumstances,” said Zverev. “I don’t know when I played under the lights last time so I’m really happy to get the win.”
Among the other winners were Grigor Dimitrov, John Isner and Richard Gasquet who closed out Gilles Muller in three sets at 1:45am.
Today, Isner meets Vasek Pospisil. Gasquet plays Jack Sock and Sam Querrey clashes with Marin Cilic. Kei Nishikori is also in action.
In the women’s event, Alize Cornet was shocked by American youngster Louisa Chirico while Sam Stosur advanced.
At the Serena-less Stanford event, American hope Madison Keys was bounced by Ajla Tomljanovic
1-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Alison Riske scored an upset beating No. 3 seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-4, 6-4.
On Thursday, top seeds Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska made their debuts.
THURSDAY WASHINGTON SCHEDULE
STADIUM COURT start 1:50 pm
WTA – [3] B. Bencic (SUI) vs A. Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)
Not Before 4:00 pm
ATP – [16] L. Mayer (ARG) vs [2] K. Nishikori (JPN)
Not Before 5:30 pm
ATP – [13] S. Querrey (USA) vs [3] M. Cilic (CRO)
Not Before 7:30 pm
ATP – [4] R. Gasquet (FRA) vs [15] J. Sock (USA)
ATP – [12] V. Pospisil (CAN) vs [8] J. Isner (USA)
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