Murray loses to rank 50 Zverev in Australian Open's fourth round

January 23, 2017

Yesterday, German tennis player defeated Scottish player and current world number 1 Andy Murray in the 's 4th round. 50th ranked Zverev is to face Roger Federer in his first ever Grand Slam quarter-final. Zverev won the first set 7–5, with seven total through the match. Last year's runner-up Murray made a comeback in the second set serving ten aces in the match. Zverev took on the next two sets, winning it 6–2 and 6–4 to advance to the quarter-finals of the tournament. Murray committed 28 unforced errors in the entire match &mdash; two more than Zverev. The match lasted over three and half hours.

Zverev won 65 net points out of 118. Murray won just 29 out of 44. Zverev won two out of three break points, Murray registering none. Murray has played against Zverev on four occasions previously, winning all four.

After the match, Murray said, "I've had tough losses in my career in the past. I've come back from them. This is a tough one. I'm sure I'll come back okay from it. But right now I'm obviously very down because I wanted to go further in this event, and it wasn't to be." Murray congratulated Zverev and said, "He deserved to win because he played great when he was down, and also in the important moments".

Federer defeated Japanese player 6–7, 6–4, 6–1, 4–6, 6–3. The seven-time Wimbledon Champion has featured in 48 Grand Slam quarter-finals before.

Murray has lost five Australian Open finals, four against Serbian player Novak Djokovic. Current world number 2 Djokovic was eliminated in the second round of the tournament. This is the first time in last fifteen years that neither world number 1 or 2 has competed in the Australian Open's quarterfinal in the men's category.

Murray has never won the Australian Open title but the Scot would still be world number one, because of Djokovic's early exit. 1715 points separates Murray from six-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic who completed his Grand Slam last year.