Alex de Minaur has kicked off his clay court docket season in fashion, demolishing Andy Murray of their first spherical conflict on the Monte Carlo Masters.
The Australian defeated Murray 6-1 6-3 in an hour and 26 minutes in a one-sided demolition Murray described as one of many worst matches of his profession.
Murray was making his first look on the Monaco event since 2017, however he might need wished he hadn’t turned up.
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de Minaur broke serve with ease to win the primary 4 video games and take the opening set in 35 minutes.
A clearly flustered Murray misplaced any momentum he had when he argued with the umpire {that a} level ought to have been stopped when his hat fell off.
de Minaur cruised to victory and can subsequent face Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff within the spherical of 32.
Murray produced gutsy five-set performances on the Australian Open however the 35-year-old might be tempted to skip the clay court docket season and concentrate on tournaments on grass and hardcourt which might be kinder on his alternative hip.
“It was awful,” Murray informed Scotland’s Herald.
“Nothing was good about it. I don’t know exactly why that was. Obviously I didn’t play a great match in Miami. And this was worse than that.
“I didn’t do anything well, didn’t serve well, return well, forehands, backhands, shot selection. It was one of the worst I’ve played in my career, probably.
“I was feeling optimistic coming into the clay. I’d been feeling good with my body the last 10 days or so considering I’ve not played much on it.
“I was feeling good and I’d actually been moving pretty well in practice, so I was optimistic. But it was pretty demoralising and I’ve not felt like that many times in my career on the court. It was really tough.”
The victory continues a robust begin to the 12 months for de Minaur, who made the fourth spherical of the Australian Open and claimed his seventh ATP title on the Mexico Open.
In different leads to Monte Carlo, fellow Aussie Alexei Popyrin beat Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic 7-6 6-3 within the first spherical.
Stan Wawrinka bought previous the primary spherical as Russian qualifier Ivan Gakhov secured a date with World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka has slipped to ninetieth within the ATP rankings however secured his second-round ticket with a 5-7 6-3 6-4 defeat of Tallon Griekspoor.
Gakhov’s reward for edging previous American Mackenzie McDonald 7-6 2-6 6-3 is a second-round date with Djokovic.
The Serbian has not performed since shedding his semi-final in Dubai in early March to Daniil Medvedev.
Forced to overlook the American swing in Indian Wells and Miami resulting from his anti-Covid vaccination stance Djokovic, mentioned on he was “motivated” to hit the clay-court season working as he targets a twenty third Grand Slam at Roland Garros.
His path to a 3rd Monte Carlo title has been smoothed by the absences resulting from damage of 11-time champion Rafael Nadal and Spanish teenage star Carlos Alcaraz.
Dominic Thiem knocked out France’s prime hope Richard Gasquet 6-1 6-4, with Danish sixth seed Holger Rune ready for the 2020 US Open winner within the second spherical.
With AFP
Source: www.news.com.au
