After seemingly playing some of his best Tennis in months to overcome Joao Sousa in the previous round at the Dubai Championships, the Jeckyl and Hyde character in Andy Murray came out to 'play' in his quarter-final against the teenage Croatian Borna Coric today, as he slumped to an embarrassingly comfortable straight sets loss to the world ranked number 84 player. While his opponent is surely set to climb far higher in the months and years to come, given his prodigious talent, this was still an abject performance by the man newly promoted to number three in the world.
Murray's service game seemed to desert him for much of the match against his enterprising 18-year-old adversary, none more so than in a particularly poor first set for the Scot, as he was broken three times to eventually lose it 6-1. He made more of a contest of it in the second set, but the end was near when he was again broken in the sixth game, allowing his opponent to serve out for the set and the match at 6-3.
The statistics for the match make particularly grim reading for Murray fans, as he was unable to force a single break point on his opponent's serve and to accentuate his problems made 55 unforced errors in what was for him, a woeful display.
The Croatian was only still playing in the event as a 'lucky loser' after being defeated in the qualifying rounds prior to the main draw for the tournament.
He also had some fortune in beating the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in round two, when his opponent was forced to retire in the third set with the scores tied at 4-4.
Coric is currently the youngest player in the ATP top one hundred world ranking list and had played Murray previously in a Davis Cup match back in 2013, where he also broke his service once in the third set of a straight sets defeat.
In last year's Swiss Indoors event he famously beat Rafael Nadal on his way to the semi-finals where David Goffin ended his run. He was knocked out of this year's Australian Open in the first round, a tournament that Murray reached the final in.
Coric will now face either Roger Federer or Richard Gasquet in the semi-finals in Dubai.
