‘Worst I’ve played’: Andy Murray thrashed by Aussie Alex de Minaur

Alex de Minaur has continued his strong form, thrashing Andy Murray to leave the British tennis legend’s career on the ropes.

Alex de Minaur demolished Andy Murray.

Alex de Minaur has kicked off his clay court season in style, demolishing Andy Murray in their first round clash at the Monte Carlo Masters.

The Australian defeated Murray 6-1 6-3 in an hour and 26 minutes in a one-sided demolition Murray described as one of the worst matches of his career.

Murray was making his first appearance at the Monaco tournament since 2017, but he might have wished he hadn’t turned up.

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de Minaur broke serve with ease to win the first four games and take the opening set in 35 minutes.

A clearly flustered Murray lost any momentum he had when he argued with the umpire that a point should have been stopped when his hat fell off.

de Minaur cruised to victory and will next face Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff in the round of 32.

Murray produced gutsy five-set performances at the Australian Open but the 35-year-old could be tempted to skip the clay court season and focus on tournaments on grass and hardcourt that are kinder on his replacement hip.

“It was awful,” Murray told Scotland’s Herald.

“Nothing was good about it. I don’t know exactly why that was. Obviously I didn’t play a great match in Miami. And this was worse than that.

The Demon was way too good for Andy Murray. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

“I didn’t do anything well, didn’t serve well, return well, forehands, backhands, shot selection. It was one of the worst I’ve played in my career, probably.

“I was feeling optimistic coming into the clay. I’d been feeling good with my body the last 10 days or so considering I’ve not played much on it.

“I was feeling good and I’d actually been moving pretty well in practice, so I was optimistic. But it was pretty demoralising and I’ve not felt like that many times in my career on the court. It was really tough.”

The victory continues a strong start to the year for de Minaur, who made the fourth round of the Australian Open and claimed his seventh ATP title at the Mexico Open.

In other results in Monte Carlo, fellow Aussie Alexei Popyrin beat Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic 7-6 6-3 in the first round.

Stan Wawrinka got past the first round as Russian qualifier Ivan Gakhov secured a date with World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.

Three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka has slipped to 90th in the ATP rankings but secured his second-round ticket with a 5-7 6-3 6-4 defeat of Tallon Griekspoor.

Andy Murray might want to skip the clay court season after that. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)

Gakhov’s reward for edging past American Mackenzie McDonald 7-6 2-6 6-3 is a second-round date with Djokovic.

The Serbian has not played since losing his semi-final in Dubai in early March to Daniil Medvedev.

Forced to miss the American swing in Indian Wells and Miami due to his anti-Covid vaccination stance Djokovic, said on he was “motivated” to hit the clay-court season running as he targets a 23rd Grand Slam at Roland Garros.

His path to a third Monte Carlo title has been smoothed by the absences due to injury of 11-time champion Rafael Nadal and Spanish teenage star Carlos Alcaraz.

Dominic Thiem knocked out France’s top hope Richard Gasquet 6-1 6-4, with Danish sixth seed Holger Rune waiting for the 2020 US Open winner in the second round.

With AFP

Originally published as ‘Worst I’ve played’: Andy Murray thrashed by Aussie Alex de Minaur