Qatar Open: Murray out as Mensik advances to quarter-finals

Jakub Mensik edged out Andy Murray 7-6 (6), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4) to advance to the last eight of the Qatar Open at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha on Wednesday.

Murray, ranked No 50, won against French qualifier Alexandre Muller (6-1, 7-6 (5)) in the previous round of the Doha tournament – his first win of the season.

And he will be naturally disappointed at this defeat – dropping a 6-4 lead in the first-set tiebreak. Exiting in the second round also means he will drop significant points, as he reached the final of this tournament in 2023, losing then to Daniil Medvedev.

However, he can also be pleased with his own resurgence in the third set, recovering from 5-2 down to force a deciding tiebreak in what turned out to be the longest match in Doha history, clocking in at three hours and 24 minutes.

Mensik, ranked No 116, will face the winner of the match between Russian Andrey Rublev, the top seed, and French wildcard Richard Gasquet next.

In the previous round of the Doha tournament, Mensik defeated Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, the No 5 seed (7-6 (3), 6-4).

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Doha ATP 250, other second-round results (Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, hard, USD 1.395.875, most recent results first):

• Gael Monfils vs. Zhizhen Zhang
• Andrey Rublev vs. Richard Gasquet
• Ugo Humbert vs. Pavel Kotov: wednesday
• Alexei Popyrin beat Hugo Grenier (Q): 7-6 (3), 6-7 (8), 6-1
• Alexander Bublik (4) beat Marton Fucsovics: 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Karen Khachanov (2) beat Fabian Marozsan: 6-4, 7-5
• Emil Ruusuvuori beat Christopher O’Connell: 6-3, 6-3