Murray Leads Day of Upsets on Day 3 of W&S Open

Day 3 of the Western and Southern Open was filled to upsets and surprises. With so much to breakdown, let’s summarize the day as a whole.

Where do we begin? To cover some expected results, 3rd seed Daniil Medvedev beat American Marcos Giron 6-4, 6-4. Medvedev served up 8 aces and won an astonishing 92% of his first-serve points en route to victory.

In addition, Karen Khachanov took care of business against Pablo Carreno Busta, winning 7-6(8), 6-1. Khachanov served up 8 aces as well, and also won a high amount of his first-serve points, winning a total of 86% of them. He also converted on 75% of his break points and never faced a break point the entire match.

Now let’s move onto the shockers. Andy Murray played a grueling 3 set, 2 and a half hour match against 5th seed Alexander Zverev, and somehow won in what was a back and forth match throughout, with the final score coming in at 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. Murray was up 4-1 in the 3rd set, until Zverev broke back TWICE to go up 5-4, serving for the match. However, at that moment, Zverev’s kryptonite hit at the most crucial point of the match: His double faults. He served 3 straight double faults to lose the game, and then on his next service game, again served 2 more double faults to end up losing the match.

Murray played great, saving 8/11 break points on his return game and won 50% of his break points, compared to 27% by Zverev. Ultimately, the match came down to Zverev’s serve, and he cracked under pressure. His ace to double fault ratio was 10:11, showing yet another occasion Zverev’s recent matches in which his serve has failed him.

In other upset news, Filip Krajinovic manhandled 2 seed Dominic Thiem 6-2, 6-1. Thiem could never get anything going, winning a total of 2, just 2, return points the entire match, amounting a 6% conversion rate. Thiem hopes to bounce back at the US Open, but this embarrassing loss is sure to hurt his confidence.

Day 3 Full Results 

[3] D Medvedev def [Q] M Giron 6-4, 6-4

[15] F Auger Aliassime def [WC] T Sandgren 6-7(4), 6-2, 7-6(5)

[Q] A Bedene def T Fritz 7-6(5), 7-5

M Raonic def D Evans 6-3, 7-5

R Opelka def [9] D Schwartzman 6-3, 7-6(4)

J Struff def [12] D Shapovalov 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-4

[16] J Isner def J Millman 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(5)

[11] K Khachanov vs P Carreno Busta 7-6(8), 6-1

[WC] A Murray def [5] A Zverev 6-3, 3-6, 7-5

[8] R Bautista Agut def R Gasquet 7-5, 6-1

[1] N Djokovic def [Q] R Berankis 7-6(2), 6-4

[Q] M Fucsovics def [14] G Dimitrov 7-5, 4-6, 6-2

[6] M Berrettini def [Q] E Ruusuvuori 6-4, 6-7(3), 7-5

F Krajinovic def [2] D Thiem 6-2, 6-1

Day 4 Schedule

11 AM

[3] D Medvedev vs [Q] A Bedene

J Struff vs [7] D Goffin

1PM

[11] K Khachanov vs [8] R Bautista Agut

3PM

[1] N Djokovic vs [WC} T Sandgren

[6] M Berrettini vs R Opelka

5PM

[WC] A Murray vs M Raonic

[16] J Isner vs [4] S Tsitsipas

7PM

[Q] M Fucsovics vs F Krajinovic