Agence France Presse
Washington, August 6: British top seed Andy Murray suffered a stunning defeat in his first hard court warm-up match for the US Open, losing Wednesday to Teymuraz Gabashvili at the ATP Washington Open.
The 53rd-ranked Russian outlasted third-ranked Murray 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4) in a match that lasted 162 minutes to reach the third round.
Murray, the first Washington top seed to lose his first match since Ivan Lendl in 1993, served for the match in the third set and was two points from victory before Gabashvili broke to 5-5 and the Russian later took the final four tie-breaker points to secure the triumph.
“It was a tough match,” Murray said. “Obviously disappointing not to close out the third set when I had a chance. Struggled with my rhythm early. There were some good rallies. He served well in the big moments, especially in the third set.”
Gabashvili, who was 3-22 against prior top-10 foes, hit 30 winners and only made 15 unforced errors while winning 86 per cent of first serve points in making Murray the highest-ranked victim of his career. “Anytime you beat Andy Murray 7-6 in the third it’s something special – 100 per cent it’s my best victory,” Gabashvili said.
Gabashvili, who lost to Murray last year at Shanghai in their only prior meeting, broke the Briton with a backhand winner to take the first set after 45 minutes. He sent a forehand overhead smash wide to give Murray a 4-3 edge in the second set. He had a break chance on Murray in the 10th game but sent a forehand volley long and two points later hit a backhand wide to hand the Scotsman the second set.
Murray broke Gabashvili at love in the ninth game of the third set and was two points from victory before surrendering a service break on a wide cross-court backhand. And the Russian to control from then on and never looked back.
Also sent packing was South African fifth seed Kevin Anderson, who lost to German Alexander Zverev 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer outlasted Slovenian Blaz Rola 7-6 (7/2), 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, to reach a third round face-off against Japanese second seed Kei Nishikori.
On the women’s side, Australian second seed Samantha Stosur, the 2011 US Open champion, advanced to a quarterfinal with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over American Irina Falconi. However, French fifth seed Alize Cornet was upset 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (4-7) by 19-year-old wildcard Louisa Chirico.
Defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova withdrew due to a lower left leg injury, advancing American Sloane Stephens into the quarterfinals against Chirico.
