Schwartzman ends Murray’s run in Antwerp
The 2019 champion exited the tournament at the hands of the second seed
Diego Schwartzman put an end to Andy Murray’s run at the European Open, beating him 6-4, 7-6(6) to reach the quarter-finals.
“It was a pleasure to play against Andy,” Schwartzman said afterwards. “We didn’t play before. Obviously he’s coming back, every week he’s playing better and moving better. I have a lot of respect. When I grew up watching tennis, I was watching Roger, Rafa, Andy and Djokovic.”
The Briton had got off to a flier, taking a 4-1 lead, but the second seed reeled off five games in a row to take the set.
The former world No 1 looked resurgent in the latter stages of the second set, breaking the Schwartzman serve and then holding his own to move 5-4 ahead.
The Argentinian had to serve twice to stay in the set – and dropped just one point across both, forcing the tiebreak.
Murray had, of course, come through three tiebreak sets on Tuesday against Frances Tiafoe – but one more was just too far for the 34-year-old.
Speaking after the match, Murray said he still needed to improve his attitude and decision-making process during close matches.
“Mentally today I was poor. My attitude was poor on the court and those are two things you can control,” Murray said as quoted by the ATP Tour. “If they’re not there, that also will make the decision-making harder.”
“Sport is a results business. If you play well or poorly, it doesn’t really matter if you lose the matches. You need to be winning and winning matches maybe when you’re not playing your best, which I have done a few times these past few months, but certainly not as many as I would have liked. That’s obviously what I want [in] the last few tournaments [of the season].”
Bautista Agut upset by Fucsovics
In other second round matches on Thursday, fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut was upset by Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics 6-7, 6-3, 6-1 in two hours and 22 minutes.
Seventh seed Lloyd Harris advanced to the last eight with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Jan-Lennard Struff and American Brandon Nakashima defeated Henri Laaksonen 7-6, 6-7, 6=3 in a clash between two qualifiers.
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