Andy Murray‘s singles comeback hit another roadblock as he lost 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 to Alex De Minaur of Australia in the second round of the Zhuhai Championships on Thursday.
Murray won his first tour-level match since having hip surgery in January when he beat Tennys Sandgren on Tuesday, but couldn’t follow that up despite winning the first set as he only converted two of his nine break points.
The former world No. 1 said he played “only top-70, top-60 level” tennis during the defeat to De Minaur.
“Physically, I was struggling,” Murray said. “My level dropped off a little bit and he capitalised on that.
“My body held up well after two pretty long matches but the rest of my body is just tired.
“I wasn’t able to sustain it for long enough. I played one or two good points, but then I was trying to finish the points a little bit early and shot selection goes down when you’re tired.”
Top-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas also exited the tournament as he was forced to retire before the third set against Adrian Mannarino of France. He had called for a trainer twice during the match.
Andreas Seppi of Italy advanced after saving five match points in the deciding tiebreaker before beating local favorite Zhizhen Zhang 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (8). Croatia’s Borna Coric, who beat Di Wu of China 6-3, 6-3, also progressed.
In another marathon match at the Chengdu Open, unseeded Belarusian Egor Gerasimov upset top-seeded John Isner 6-7 (11), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) to reach the quarterfinals.
Gerasimov will face Denis Shapovalov of Canada, who dispatched America’s Bradley Klahn 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3).
In another upset, Portugal’s Joao Sousa ousted second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4. He will next play Lloyd Harris, who beat Serbia’s Dujan Lajovic 6-3, 6-3.