Andy Murray suffered another first-round defeat on the clay, crashing out of the Madrid Open on Thursday. The two-time former champion was facing Andrea Vavassori in what was the Italian’s first Masters match and went on to lose 6-2 7-6(7). It means Murray has been denied the chance to face Daniil Medvedev in the second round.
Murray was back in Madrid after previously claiming he would consider skipping the entire clay season following his one-sided Monte Carlo Masters defeat to Alex de Minaur. The Brit was facing Vavassori, who had qualified for his first-ever Masters 1000 event this week.
Although it was his first main draw match at Masters level, the world No 164 looked like he had been playing the big events for years as he broke Murray to love in the opening game. A two-time former champion in Madrid, the 35-year-old had no answers for the Italian’s impressive ball-striking and quickly went 4-0 down.
The world No 52 saved another break point to finally get himself on the board at 1-4 but the double-break deficit was too much and he lost the opener 6-2 in 32 minutes. Vavassori outclassed Murray, hitting five winners to just two from the Brit and dropping just three points on serve.
Vavassori earned another break to love early on in the second set, taking a 2-1 lead. Murray was finally able to carve out his first break point at 3-4 down and he let out a roar as the world No 164 dumped the ball in the net, allowing him to break for the first time and draw level in the second set.
The second set went to a tiebreak, where Vavassori got the first mini-break courtesy of an error from the former world No 1. Murray gave a second mini-break away but was able to retrieve one with a winner but he continued to struggle with getting the ball over the net, handing Vavassori a match point.
It became a rollercoaster tiebreak, as three errors from the qualifier’s racket kept Murray alive from 3-6 down. The Brit suffered a shocker when he had the whole court wide open at 6-6 but sent the ball down by his feet to give the Italian another match point.
But it was another match point came that and went from Vavassori, who again made a mistake to help Murray draw level at 7-7. The Italian was finally able to close out a 6-2 7-6(7) victory on his fifth match point as the net continued to haunt Murray, who sent the ball down into it once again.
It means Murray will be denied the chance to face Medvedev in a grudge match after losing their Doha final earlier this year. And it’s another disappointing defeat for him on the clay, as he branded his Monte Carlo defeat “awful” and “one of the worst of my career” in an interview with Tennis Majors.
The Brit had claimed that he would consider skipping the clay season after that loss to De Minaur but had a change of heart as he arrived in Madrid early to get some practice in on the clay. But another tough first-round exit will be tough for Murray to take, and he could make the decision to miss Rome and the French Open as a result.
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