Andy Murray suffered a shock defeat against world No 53
Federico Delbonis in the third round at Indian Wells.
The British No 1 had a frustrating time from the outset and
lost a decisive tie-set to an inspired Delbonis, who completed a 6-4 4-6 7-6
victory.
Murray, who has only ever got beyond the last four of this
tournament once (2009), said: "I think it's just the conditions I have
just struggled with here throughout my career.
"I have never really felt that I played my best tennis
here. I have tried and had many different preparations where I've got here
early and spent a lot of time on the courts, and sometimes I arrive later, like
this time from Davis Cup.
"I changed stringing my racquets like four or five
pounds tighter than I was at the Davis Cup, which is significant. Really
the tightest I have strung throughout the whole year would be at this event,
and I still feel like I can't really go for my shots.
"I feel like when I do, I make mistakes. But even you
look in the tie-break I missed a couple of backhands long, and then also a
couple of balls in the bottom of the net. It just never quite worked out for me
here."
Left-handed Delbonis hung around in the early stages and,
after forcing deuce with Murray on serve at 3-3, took advantage of the Brit's
restlessness at his own performance to snatch a break. The Argentine then had
the calmness to hold his own serve twice more and take the first set in 42
minutes.
Murray even found humour at his own shortcomings in the
second set, sarcastically laughing at himself after conceding break point,
although he swiftly saved it. He struggled through his own service game before
edging 2-1 ahead.
It seemed Delbonis' resistance had faltered as Murray
secured a quick break and went 4-1 up yet the plucky South American forced the
set to go to 5-5. The rollercoaster set then saw both men break to force a
tie-breaker.
The tie-break went neck-and-neck until a Murray error put him
3-5 behind and resulted in a racket smash. Delbonis earned three match points
and completed the upset at the first attempt, setting up a last-16 clash with
either Gael Monfils or Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
0 comments:
Post a Comment