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Tipsarevic shocks Murray in Dubai
ESPN staff
February 24, 2010
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Andy Murray looked out of sorts during his defeat to Janko Tipsarevic
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Andy Murray crashed out of the Dubai Tennis Championships, as a lacklustre display enabled Janko Tipsarevic to claim a 7-6(3) 4-6 6-4 win.
The Murray that made it through to the Australian Open final was not on show in Dubai and Tipsarevic, who at times produced some stunning hitting from the back of the court, took full advantage to claim his first win over the Scot since their meeting in Moscow in 2007.
The first four games went with serve, but Murray looked a little slovenly around the court and paid the penalty in game nine as he sent a backhand wide to hand the world No. 39 the break of serve.
The Serb backed up his break with a strong hold, but with the set in sight his arm tightened markedly and a wild smash handed Murray three break-back points - the second of which he converted.
The Brit suddenly had a spring in his step and a fabulous forehand passing shot on the run raised the expectation level. However, the set went into a tie-break and it was Tipsaervic who drew first blood with a glorious inside-out forehand and Murray had no answer as the Serb wrapped up the opening set.
The expected response from the world No. 4 came in the first game of the second set as another fabulous running forehand pass secured Murray the early break of serve.
Tipsarevic saved two set points in the 10th game of the second set, but he made no impact on Murray's serve as the Australian Open runner-up set up a final set.
Any thoughts of Murray racing away with the match were snuffed out in the second game of the final set as a shocking backhand volley into the net handed Tipsarevic a break point which he duly took as Murray threw a backhand over the baseline.
Murray cranked up the pressure as he went in search of an immediate break back but Tipsarevic, roared on by a vociferous group of fans, held for 3-0.
The fifth game was the longest of the match and Murray worked five break points as he threw everything at his opponent, but on each occasion Tipsarevic came up with an answer.
Tipsarevic was forced to serve out but he could not complete the job at 5-3 as he sent a backhand well wide on match point and Murray produced a stunning pass on break point to extend the match.
Murray's display was summed up by the next game as with Tipsarevic clearly wobbling, the Scot failed to ram home the break and the Serb put away a high smash to seal the match and set up a quarter-final clash with Mikhail Youzhny.
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