Murray out of Australian Open in the first round
14th January, 2008
British number one Andy Murray has crashed out of the Australian Open in the first round to Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The world number 38 took control from the beginning to record an impressive 7-5 6-4 0-6 7-6 (7-5) victory. A solid serve and firerce forehand gave his ninth seed opponent few opportunities.
Tsonga went two sets up without too much trouble, before Murray hit back with a 6-0 drubbing in the third set. The fourth set was tense and went to a tie-break before Tsonga fought through his thigh injury to win three sets to one.
Murray had won the Qatar Open in the lead up to the tournament, leading some to think he could be a serious contender for the Grand Slam title. He admitted he had under-performed but did not attribute it to any physical problems. "I don't think it's anything to do with not getting to Australia early enough," he said. "I had six, seven days of preparation. I trained in the hot conditions. It was nothing to do with the physical thing why I lost the match. The most important thing is to get his serve back because he's obviously got a very good serve but I didn't make enough returns at the start of the match to have a chance of really breaking him.”
"I didn't put enough returns in court with enough depth to let his inconsistency be a problem at the start of the match and it was only at the end when I started to do that. I did all the right preparation, worked very hard on my game and I've improved a lot of my shots.”
"I'm obviously disappointed that I didn't win the match. I would have wanted to win more than anything. I gave it my best effort out there. But it's not the worst I've felt after a defeat."
