Britain’s Andy Murray was unable to again up his first win of 2024 as he misplaced to 18-year-old Jakub Mensik in a rollercoaster Qatar Open match.
Murray, 36, ended a run of six defeats by beating Alexandre Muller on Tuesday however misplaced 7-6 (8-6) 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-4) to 116th-ranked Mensik 24 hours later.
Trailing 5-2 within the decider, the Scot clawed again each breaks as his Czech opponent couldn’t serve out.
Nonetheless, Mensik reset mentally to win and attain his first ATP quarter-final.
Having reached the ultimate in Doha final 12 months, Murray had a major variety of rating factors to defend and dropping within the second spherical means the previous world primary will drop exterior the world’s prime 60 subsequent week.
A troubling begin to 2024 noticed Murray lose his opening 4 matches of the brand new season, which led to questions on how lengthy he deliberate to maintain taking part in and provoked a defiant response from the three-time Grand Slam champion.
Murray, who turns 37 in Could, insisted he would proceed to “maintain combating” as he goals to play at a degree which he believes he stays “able to” delivering.
Incomes his first win of the 12 months towards French world quantity 75 Muller was an enormous aid and a step in the best course.
Nonetheless, dropping to Mensik – a gifted participant with a robust sport and significantly shiny future, however but to crack the world’s prime 100 – is one other setback.
Murray’s frustrations had been clear as he made a pointy exit after a tense contest lasting three hours and 23 minutes – the longest match within the Qatar Open’s historical past.
“I am simply speechless proper now, I do not know what to say,” mentioned Mensik, who will play Russian prime seed Andrey Rublev or French veteran Richard Gasquet on Thursday.
“It was a tricky match, [Murray] is a good participant and I watched him on the TV profitable Wimbledon twice, it’s unbelievable at this age he can nonetheless compete with the very best gamers of the world.”
Extra to comply with.