Tennis Prose




Mar/23

23

Murray Explains Reasons For Lajovic Loss In Miami

Andy Murray had good runs in Doha (beat Lehecka, Muller, Zverev Sonego) and Indian Wells (beat Etcheverry and Albot) but the former Miami Open champion was defeated by world no. 76 Dusan Lajovic in the first round yesterday.

The 35 year old ranked 52 in the world figured out all the reasons for the surprise loss to the Serbian veteran and explained them to the media.

“I served pretty well, but the rest of the game was a bit of a problem today. Didn’t really return that well, made a number of errors that obviously I wouldn’t expect to be making.”

“I didn’t really feel like I moved particularly well, which is really important for me, something I’ve been doing very well actually in most of the matches this year. So that was probably the thing.”

“Some days you obviously don’t hit the ball your best, but my movement wasn’t great today.”

“I’d been practicing pretty well. It’s a very different court here, very bouncy, much faster than last week. Very different to the practice courts and everything.”

“The ball was bouncing up a bit higher and I just miss-timed quite a few balls. Sometimes on the slice it was shooting through a little bit more, kind of shanked a couple shots off the slice, as well… I wasn’t expecting to play like that, even based on the last few days because I’ve been decent in practice.”

It was the first meeting of Murray and Lajovic. 32 year old Lajovic has a career record of 171-222 while Murray’s is 725-238. Lajovic has won one career ATP singles title.

Murray has an 8-5 match record so far in 2023. He made the final in Doha, losing to champion Medvedev 64 64.

· · ·

7 comments

  • Cory · March 23, 2023 at 2:57 pm

    Disappointing is an understatement. Altho Lajovic has had a strong season, a portion of it was on clay 250s. Murray’s match to lose and he did. The grass season has to be his coming back party to the top 30.

  • Cory · March 23, 2023 at 2:59 pm

    Denis Dudla blew the first set to Eubanks, typical Dudla fashion choking the tiebreak. Paire today Scoop! Who woulda thought he’d win 3 matches in a row? Make it 4 against Watanuki?

  • Scoop Malinowski · March 23, 2023 at 6:32 pm

    Cory, No dice for Paire, Watanuki looked really good though, very physical and all around game. Watanuki really caught my eye at Sarasota Open last year watching him practice, he stood out. First saw him play Korda a tough match at US Open juniors on court 17 with Petr in the house. I’m keeping an eye on Yosuke Watanuki. What I don’t understand is the U is silent in Japanese, Courier was saying Yoske but the last name he was saying the U full out Watanooki. A Japanese woman told me the same thing 3 years ago, the U is silent, her name was Mitsuko but she pronounced it Mitsko. I’m confused )

  • Scoop Malinowski · March 23, 2023 at 6:43 pm

    Cory, Murray has to be profoundly perplexed by a loss like this. He should be able to scrap and scratch through it with experience and defense. It’s another very weird loss. Like at Wimbledon last year to Isner, the first time he ever lost to Isner. He said before he was feeling very good and ready for a deep run then he loses to old timer Isner for the first time in I think 8 meetings. This is another, in his mind, unacceptable loss to a limited second tier or third tier guy he should handle. But credit to Murray, he keeps on battling. Maybe the Borg comments about Murray playing to avoid being at home with his wife and kids struck a nerve. Borg and Connors said that last week on the Advantage Connors podcast and surely word got back to Andy. It was very odd to hear two legends talk that way about another younger legend. But they weren’t joking either.

  • Scoop Malinowski · March 24, 2023 at 11:07 am

    Notes: Ivo Karlovic was helping coach Michael Ymer’s serve at Miami Open – why isn’t Brooksby smart enough to hire someone like Roddick or Ivo to help his serve? Junior standout Mayu Crossley practiced with Venus Williams in S Florida yesterday. Mayu trains at Evert Academy and won Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl 18s.

  • catherine · April 1, 2023 at 6:06 am

    Scoop- dón’t know if you still follow boxing but here’s a piece on Joshua’s moment of truth.

    I know Murray is a boxing fan so he’ll be watching.

    If Joshua loses it’ll put the seal on wrecked UK sinking beneath the waves.

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/mar/31/joshua-reaches-the-point-of-no-return-in-must-win-clash-against-franklin

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 1, 2023 at 8:39 am

    Catherine, yes i still keep an eye on boxing, Joshua will win this fight easily is my prediction. Franklin is not in his league.

<<

>>

Find it!

Copyright 2010
Tennis-Prose.com
To top