Murray Rolls in Shangai; Fognini Unravels After Upset

October 7, 2014 | By New York Tennis Magazine Staff
Murray_Crop_01
Photo credit: Adam Wolfthal

Andy Murray was the lone seeded player not to lose at the Shanghai Masters on Tuesday as the Scot defeated Russian qualifier Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-1, 7-5.

After cruising through the opening frame, Murray met a little resistance from Gabashvili who held a 5-3 advantage and was one game away from forcing a deciding third-set. Murray quickly erased any chance of that happening, rattling off the next four games to wrap up the match and move into the second round.

“At the beginning of the second set, I played a sloppy game on my serve. He gained some confidence from that and started playing better,” Murray told Sky Sports. “He was timing the ball a lot better in the second set. I just had to find a way to get through in the end. I used smart tactics at the end of the set. I started using the variety again. It was a good start for me, but some work to be done.”

He was broken twice in the second set and, as he indicated, struggled with his serve throughout the majority of the frame. He will look to improve on that as he heads into the second round and a matchup with Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz.

“I went down 5-1 when we played the other week and got off to a slow start. Then managed to find my way into the match,” said Murray of his match with Janowicz last week in Beijing. “He’s obviously a dangerous player. He’s a big guy. He won a very tight match today. He’s hit a lot of balls here. I’ll try to play a solid match from start to finish and not give him too many opportunities.”

Janowicz had to battle back from a set down to upend Edouard Roger-Vasselin 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(6) in over two hours.

Fabio Fognini, the 15th seeded Italian, became the story of the day on Tuesday. He lost to Chinese wild card Chuhan Wang 7-6(5), 6-4, and has now lost five of his last six matches.

After the loss, the 27-year old Fognini completely lost his temper. Upon shaking hands with Wang, he gave the 553rd ranked player in the world a shove with his arm as they passed each other. He then went on to throw up his middle finger to the Shanghai crowd.

It is not Fognini’s first flare up, as he was fined $27,500 at Wimbledon for his outbursts.

Chuhan picked up his first win on World Tour with the upset over Fognini, and said he felt comfortable against the 17th ranked Italian.

“I wanted to win this match, but I never actually thought I could do it,” said Wang. “I practiced with him in Beijing, so I knew a bit about him. And my coach used to be in the ATP circle, so he also told me something about Fabio’s weaknesses. I think I executed the game plan quite well.”

The 22-year old will now move on and play his second-ever match on the ATP World Tour against Tunisian qualifier Malek Jaziri.

Ernests Gulbis, the 12th seed, was upset by Russian Mikhail Youhzny 6-4, 6-1. Youhzny notched three break points and used a dominant serve to cruise past Gulbis in just over an hour. He moves on and will play Ivan Dodig in the second-round.

The other seeded player to lose on Tuesday was 16th-seeded Kevin Anderson. The tall South African was knocked out by Russian Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 6-2, who moves into the third-round. He gets the winner of top-seeded Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem.


New York Tennis Magazine Staff
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