Britain's top tennis stars suffered a bad day at the Miami Open as Andy Murray, Kyle Edmund and Emma Raducanu all crashed out of the Florida tournament at the first hurdle.
Three-time Grand Slam winner Murray suffered a crushing first-round exit with a straight-sets defeat to Dusan Lajovic, while former British number one Edmund also lost in straight sets to Yibing Wu. Raducanu, looking to build on her run to the fourth round of last week’s BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, was beaten in three sets by Bianca Andreescu.
Murray, a two-time winner in Miami, made a series of unforced errors as Serb Lajovic, ranked 76th in the world, secured a 6-4 7-5 win in one hour and 36 minutes. The 35-year-old Scot, who last week lost to fellow Brit Jack Draper in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, had break points in the fourth and sixth games of the opening set but was unable to force home his advantage.
Murray admitted he had struggled with several aspects of his game, saying: "Some days you obviously don’t hit the ball your best, but my movement wasn’t great today. I served pretty well, but the rest of the game was a bit of a problem.
“Obviously I was hoping to do much better here. Whether I stay and train here on the clay for a few days before heading to Spain, I’m not sure.”
Edmund, back in action for the first time since the Australian Open following a series of injury problems, suffered a 7-5 7-5 defeat to his Chinese opponent in one hour and 35 minutes.
Raducanu, 20, took the second set against Andreescu – which included a marathon 21-minute game – to take the match to a deciding set. But the 22-year-old Canadian proved too strong for the British number one as she saw out a 6-3 3-6 6-2 victory.
Afterwards, Raducanu indicated she would seek fresh advice on the wrist problems that have troubled her this season.
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“It’s something I’ve been managing for some time,” said Raducanu. “I just need to review after this tournament really and figure out what my next steps are.
“I’m able to play in the short term. But the current solutions aren’t very viable long term. I feel like this year has been difficult in the sense that I have been managing a few existing injuries and that has been annoying and frustrating because I’ve been working as best as I can.”
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