Dubai: Andy Murray, the former Wimbledon and US Open champion who has this week risen to World No.3, suffered one of the most remarkable defeats of his career when he was outplayed 1-6, 3-6 by Borna Coric, an 18-year-old Croatian who only gained entry to the main draw of the Dubai Open as a lucky loser. Murray was a long way below his best but Coric did enough, with his consistent containing and counter-attacking and excellent focus, to become the youngest player to reach the semifinals of the 23-year-old tournament and justify some of the accolades which are starting to come his way.
World No.1 Novak Djokovic, who has practised with him a few times, called him “definitely one of the most talented players in the world right now,” and Coric already has a win over Rafael Nadal, though the Spaniard was not fully fit. Many pundits believe he will quickly rise from his current ranking of 84 into the Top 20. It was evident from the start that an upset was on the cards. Murray served a double fault and missed with two routine backhand drives — usually his most reliable stroke — to drop serve in the third game, and never looked like breaking back.
Although Murray won the finest rally of the match, a 41-stroke affair, he only did so with a fortunate net cord, and soon he had dropped serve twice more. His improvement in the second set was brief.
