Serbian Dusan Lajovic beat Andy Murray 6-4 7-5 at the Miami Open on Wednesday, sending the Briton packing in the first round with his first hard court win of the season.
Lajovic thrust his fists to the air after surviving a 16-shot rally on the final point, setting up a meeting with American Maxime Cressy, who won their only prior encounter.
Lajovic drew first blood, breaking the three-times Grand Slam winner to love in the seventh game and kept the momentum going in the second set.
Up a break late in the second set, however, he squandered the advantage with a double fault and a costly unforced error in the 10th game, but found his nerve to break Murray’s serve in the next game.
It was disappointing for Murray, who reached the final in Doha last month. The 35-year-old flung his racquet in frustration after a costly unforced error – one of 15 across the match – late in the affair and told reporters he had expected a better performance from himself.
“I served pretty well, but the rest of the game was a bit of a problem today. Didn’t really return that well. Yeah, made a number of errors that obviously I wouldn’t expect to be making,” Murray said.
“Wasn’t expecting to play like that, even based on the last few days because I’ve been decent in practice.” (Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York Editing by Toby Davis)
Check out our sports section for the latest news and analysis. Care for a wager? Head to our sports betting section for news and odds.
