TENNIS
BAGHDATIS DUMPS OUT OF SORTS MURRAY
Daily Record
By Stuart Fraser in Rotterdam
Thursday 10th February 2011

WEB LINK: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/tennis-news/2011/02/10/abn-amro-world-tennis-marcos-baghdatis-dumps-out-of-sorts-andy-murray-in-first-round-86908-22912330/

ANDY MURRAY crashed out the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament last night as he failed to shake off his Australian Open woes.

The world No.5 slumped to a straight sets 6-4 6-1 first-round defeat to Marcos Baghdatis at the Rotterdam event.

But the Scot revealed he had suffered problems with his left wrist during the match.

Murray said: "I was struggling a bit with my wrist but I don't know why. It wasn't terrible today but it seems to be happening a lot this week. A number of players have had problems with their wrists.

"Maybe it's the change of surface and balls and not having much time to get used to the conditions. I don't think it's anything serious."

After pondering whether to take a break after his Grand Slam final defeat to Novak Djokovic in Melbourne, Murray decided to head to Holland and was installed as favourite for the event.

He made a blistering start to the match with aggressive hitting right from the off. An immediate break of Baghdatis' serve in the opening game was followed by another break in the third to go 3-0 up.

But then the tide turned. Murray immediately lost one of his breaks in the fourth game and the Cypriot gained momentum whilst Murray begin to make errors.

Baghdatis broke again to level at 4-4 and Murray began to show frustration by punching his strings in anger at a missed forehand.

After Baghdatis held serve to go 5-4 up, Murray had game point to level the set but put a volley wide. A double fault on deuce followed by a netted forehand gifted Baghdatis the opening set.

Baghdatis continued to play well in the second set whilst Murray struggled with his movement on the fast hard-court surface.

The Scot was broken again to go 3-1 down and Baghdatis didn't hesitate in rattling off the next three games to clinch the victory.

Murray, 23, said: "The court was fast and you need to be sharp with your movement which I wasn't.

"I didn't serve well and you need to on these courts. I had my chance to take control when I was 3-0 up but it went the other way. It's my fault.”

Murray will try to make up for last night's disappointment in the doubles today with brother Jamie against French pair Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Julien Benneteau.