July 03, (THEWILL) – The return of home favourite, Andy Murray, to the grass courts of Wimbledon came to one of his earliest Grand Slam ends since his debut in 2005 when 10th seed Canadian Denis Shapovalov handed him a straight 6-4 6-2 6-2 third-round defeat.
The Brit simply could not find the extra burners to match Shapovalov as he was broken twice early on to set the tone of the entire match while the Canadian held off Murray’s best moments of the match in the opening set which he took after that early double break.
Shapovalov’s reputation as one of the brightest players on the Association of Tennis Professionals tour was evident when he ruthlessly shredded Murray in the second set. The 22-year-old former Wimbledon junior champion looked every inch a Grand Slam title contender as he closed out a straight-sets victory in the third set in much the same way as he did the second, with the confidence the wins provided.
Uncharacteristically, Murray appeared a shadow of the three-time Grand Slam champion and former world number one that he was. Although he had put an injury-ravaged three years behind him to defeat 24th seed Nikoloz Basilashvili and German qualifier Oscar Otte, with each win more dramatic than the last and reach the third round for first time since 2017, Shapovalov’s game was superior.
The 34-year-old Murray had only twice failed to reach the quarter-finals at his home Grand Slam. That was way back in 2005, when he suffered his only previous third-round defeat, and in 2006. Only for his 13th Wimbledon in 2021 to end with his heaviest defeat at the event in his home country and in front of most of his faithful fans till date.
Yet, despite the nature of his defeat there are so many positives to take from his week’s work. The Brit displayed his knack for results despite odds stacked up high against him. There was also his competitive desire, and the kinds of results that improve his rankings to bring him to the brink of a return to the top 100.
However, as he turns his attention to the American hard court season, there is the more immediate need to set a course for his participation with Team Great Britain at the Olympics next month. In Tokyo, Murray will be a two-time defending champion in the tennis events.
Murray’s chances at the Games will be helped by his honest assessment of his Wimbledon. In part, the Brit player said in his post-match remarks: “(It) has been really good in some ways, but it’s been frustrating too. I played two long matches, and it’s really significantly more than anything I have done in the last six months really.
“So if my game is not quite spot-on physically, I’m not perfect, or physically really fresh, it’s going to be hard for me.
“It’s extremely frustrating, because I feel like I put a lot of work into getting to this point, and then obviously to lose like that is tough. Being as good as he is. I don’t want to take anything away from his performance. He played really, really well. But if I’m going to put that much effort in, I want to be performing better than what I did here. Even though there were some great moments.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
