Murray Shocked by Wawrinka in Monte Carlo

April 18, 2013 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
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Photo credit: Kenneth B. Goldberg

Stanislas Wawrinka upset world number two Andy Murray 6-1, 6-2 in the third round of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, as Wawrinka won 75 percent of his service points and broke Murray five times to record his fifth win in 13 meetings with Murray. With the loss, Murray will drop to number three in the Emirates ATP Rankings as Roger Federer will move back up to number two on Monday.

“No one wants to lose matches like today’s, but hopefully I can use it as motivation to improve because I need to do a lot of work," said Murray after the loss. "Sometimes you can squeeze through matches and not necessarily play well, but you don’t actually see what’s gone wrong because you’ve won the matches, so you think it’s okay. Obviously I’ll need to work really hard over the next sort of two weeks to get myself ready for Madrid.”

Wawrinka will face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a 6-3, 6-0 winner over Austria’s Jurgen Melzer. Tsonga broke Melzer four times to improve to a 3-0 career lead over the Austrian.

Italy’s Fabio Fognini scored another upset at Monte Carlo, defeating the fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-2. Currently ranked 32nd in the world, Fognini claimed just the second top 10 win of his career, with his only previous victory coming against then-number nine Fernando Verdasco at Wimbledon in 2010.

Novak Djokovic came from behind for the second day in a row to defeat Juan Monaco 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the third round. Djokovic is a two-time runner-up at Monte Carlo, having lost to Rafael Nadal in 2009 and 2012. In the quarterfinals, Djokovic will face Jarkko Nieminen, a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4) winner over Juan Martin del Potro. Nieminen will be playing in his first quarterfinal since 2006, when he reached the last eight at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. Nieminen has beaten Djokovic once before, four years ago in Sydney, but trails the Serb 1-3 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

Also advancing was France’s Richard Gasquet, with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over ninth-seeded Marin Cilic. Gasquet is coming off a semifinal showing at the Sony Open Tennis in Miami and has won two ATP World Tour titles this season in Doha and Montpellier. 


Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
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