Murray wins to face Djokovic for first time in 5 yrs

Tennis

Andy Murray continued his return to clay with a superb 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Denis Shapovalov on Tuesday to set up a round-of-16 clash against Novak Djokovic.

Elsewhere, Emma Raducanu led a spirited comeback against Anhelina Kalinina but did not prevail, exiting the competition in a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 defeat as she suffered with a back issue.

Djokovic made light work of France’s Gael Monfils in a 6-3, 6-2 win that means he will face Murray for the first time since 2017.

“He’s the world No. 1 and I’ve got a metal hip,” Murray told Amazon Prime.

“I didn’t know I’d get opportunities to play matches like this again. In theory I shouldn’t have a chance in the match.

“But I’ve worked my hardest, put myself in a great position and it’s a fantastic opportunity to play against him again on a big court in a huge tournament.”

Murray, who had planned to skip the clay court season before reversing his decision, achieved a solid victory over world No. 16 Shapovalov, with the three-set match playing into the early hours of the morning.

Meanwhile, Raducanu said she had slim chance of beating Ukraine’s Kalinina as she rallied for a comeback despite suffering a back issue.

“I would have given myself a 5% chance of winning that match,” she said.

“For it [the comeback] to almost happen, I think that was a positive thing.”

The 19-year-old received treatment on her back at the end of the first set before breaking Kalinina three times to claim the next set.

Kalinina got off to a 3-1 start in the third but seemed to be thwarted when Raducanu lodged a thrilling comeback to claim a 4-3 lead. However, Kalinina regained composure broke Raducanu back before serving out for the match.

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