Andy Murray crashes out of China Open first round

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Andy Murray fell at the first hurdle of the China Open as the British veteran lost to Australia’s Alex de Minaur 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (6) here on Thursday.

The 36-year-old Briton has reached at least the quarterfinal stage in all of his four previous outings and is unseeded this time.

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De Minaur, ranked 12th in the ATP tour, saved two match points in the eighth game of the third set en route to winning the 171-minute duel, Xinhua reports.

Trailing 0-40 in his first service game, Murray saved two break points but failed at the third one, which eventually cost him the first set.

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The former world No. 1 regrouped in the following set, breaking De Minaur’s serve twice while the latter broke once.

Murray broke first in the third set to make it 3-1, but De Minaur displayed admirable mettle, breaking back in the ninth game before triumphing in the breathtaking tie-break.

De Minaur has won all the previous four encounters against the 40th-ranked Murray.

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In earlier matches of the day, Ugo Humbert of France beat Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 7-5, 3-6, 6-0. Lloyd Harris of South Africa lost to Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-3. Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi disposed of Jeffrey John Wolf of the United States 6-2, 6-2, and Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat local wildcard player Zhou Yi 6-2, 6-2.

(IANS)