Defending Champ Murray Sent Packing in First Round of Rogers Cup in Montreal

August 10, 2011 | By David Drucker
amurray

The first big summer tournament kicked off this past Monday in Montreal, Canada with the ATP 1000 Series Rogers Cup. All of the top tier players, including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, etc. would be playing in their first major tournament since Wimbledon. Yesterday, however, the tournament kicked off with a major shock thanks to Kevin Anderson.

Murray, the two-time defending champion of the Rogers Cup, was stunned in his opening match against the South African Anderson. When I say stunned, I also mean embarrassed, as the score line showed a 6-3, 6-1 victory for Anderson. In 2009, Murray defeated Juan Martin del Potro in the finals, and last year, he did the same in his finals victory over Federer. Fans coming to the matches in Montreal this year already expected Murray was on his way to another Rogers Cup final, but that is not going to be the case anymore. For Murray, analyzing his game is quite simple. The light bulb is either on one day, or completely off. In this case, against Anderson you could tell by the score whether the bulb was on or not.

Despite Murray’s back-to-back titles in Montreal, he was definitely not the favorite coming in, as that honor would go to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic followed by Rafael Nadal of Spain, ranked number one and number two in the world, respectively. The lone bright spot in Murray’s loss is that now his quarter of the draw is wide open. Names like Mardy Fish of the U.S., Legg Mason Classic winner Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka, and Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis all have a chance to make it to the semifinals where they’ll most likely be met by Rafael Nadal of Spain, who sits at the bottom half of the draw as the number two seed.

As far as any other upset news, the number nine seed Gilles Simon of France was upset by Philipp Petzschner of Germany, 7-5, 6-2, while the number 11 seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia was upset by France’s Michael Llodra, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4).

2011 Rogers Cup Match Results 

►[10] Richard Gasquet (FRA) defeated Florian Mayer (GER) 6-3, 6-2

►[12] Viktor Troicki (SER) defeated Michael Yani (USA) 2-6, 6-3, 6-1

►Philipp Petzschner (GER) defeated [9] Gilles Simon (FRA) 7-5, 6-2

►Michael Llodra (FRA) defeated [11] Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4)

►Janko Tipseravic (SER) defeated Alejandro Falla (COL) 7-5, 6-1

►Michael Russell (USA) defeated Albert Montanes (ESP) 7-5, 6-2

►Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) 6-2, 7-5

►Vasek Pospisil (CAN) defeated Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4

 


David Drucker
Intern

David Drucker is an intern with Long Island Tennis Magazine and is a member of the Nichols College Men's Tennis team.  

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