Murray Rolled By Rublev In Rotterdam; Medvedev Misses Chance at No. 2

The upsets came hot and heavy Wednesday at the indoor event in Rotterdam.

A final appearance would give Daniil Medvedev the No. 2 ranking by the Russian fell way short getting bounced by Dusan Lajovic 7-6(4), 6-4.

Medvedev was playing his first match since losing to Lajovic’s countryman Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final. He had won 20 straight matches going in to the Melbourne title match. He’s now dropped five straight sets.

“I think I was very focused the whole match and not influenced by his good serves and shots,” said Lajovic who had 12 unforced errors to Medvedev’s 25. “I knew if I stayed in the match, I’d get my opportunities and change the rhythm.”

In the second set, after a Medvedev double faulted to hand Lajovic the final break to go up 5-4, the World No. 3 promptly destroyed his racquet.

Alexander Zverev also got bounced getting broken four times in a loss to to shotmaker Alexander Bublik 7-5, 6-3. Bublik scored his highest ranking win.

Andy Murray also went down, but not in a surprise. An in-form Andrey Rublev pulled away from the former No. 1 7-5, 6-2 in the second round.

“I want to be playing at this level because I learn a lot from a match like tonight,” said Murray who lost eight of the last 10 games. “The issues and the mistakes that you make get amplified more at this level… It is getting that balance right between getting enough matches and then also playing at a level where I am able to learn and pick things up as quickly as possible. I do feel tonight there were some good, positive signs there. Just when it mattered, I wasn’t good enough. I will need to improve.

“I thought I moved well for the first hour or so,” he added. “He is one of the bigger hitters on the Tour and, in the first set, I didn’t feel like he was getting too many free points from the back of the court. He was having to work hard to get the ball through me. I thought that was positive.”

Karen Khachanov and Kei Nishikori were also second round winners.

On Thursday, second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas plays his second match against Hubert Hurkacz.

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