World number one Andy Murray’s slump in form continued with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat to lucky loser Borna Coric in the third round of the Madrid Masters on Thursday.
Murray has now failed to reach the quarter-finals in any of his last three Masters series events, as well as suffering a shock fourth round exit at the Australian Open to Mischa Zverev in January.
World number 59 Coric, handed a reprieve to enter the draw despite losing in qualifying to Mikhail Kukushkin, will face either Grigor Dimitrov or Dominic Thiem in Friday’s quarter-finals.
Coric has now, though, beaten the Wimbledon champion in two of their four meetings having thrashed Murray at the Dubai Tennis Championships in 2015.
Murray was made to pay for missing break point opportunities early in both sets as Coric adjusted better to the indoor conditions with the roof at the Manolo Santana court closed due to rain.
Coric saved two break points to hold for 2-2 in the opening set before a run of three consecutive breaks of serve opened up a 4-3 lead for the 20-year-old.
And he rammed home his advantage by breaking the fragile Murray serve again to close out the set.
Murray had his chances once more with two more break points early in the second.
But after failing to capitalise the Scot looked distracted as he remonstrated with his coaching staff as the second set went with serve until a terrible eighth game from Murray gifted Coric the break once more.
Despite the pressure of serving for the match, Coric remained cool to seal victory in just under 90 minutes on court when Murray fired wide.
”I definitely think I need to be concerned about today. It’s not always the worst thing losing a match, but it’s sometimes the manner of how you lose the match is what can be concerning or disappointing,” said Murray.
”Whereas my match, like, against Thiem in Barcelona, I was disappointed to lose, but I felt like I competed really well. I did some good stuff in the match, found a way to turn it around and make it, you know, a tough match for him.
”Whereas today I didn’t really do any of that stuff. That’s concerning. So I need to think about exactly why that is, what I can do about it.”
Murray is hopeful though that can he turn things around soon, particularly with the French Open less than three weeks away.
”You know, things can turn around quickly in tennis. Borna lost in the qualifying here a few days ago. Now he’s in the quarters playing very good tennis. Things can change fast,” Murray noted.
”But you need to have the right sort of ideas, correct ideas, understand why you’re in the position you’re in. Hopefully I can do that, you know, with my team, and play better in Rome and Roland Garros.”
