From joy to misery, Andy Murray suffers joint heaviest ATP defeat
Andy Murray barely registered resistance against Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round of Doha as he was beaten 6-0, 6-1 by the Spaniard.
The former world number one was riding high after avenging his Australian Open loss to Taro Daniel, defeating the Japanese 6-2, 6-2 in the opening round of the ATP 250 Qatar Open.
But Bautista Agut did not allow Murray to dictate play in his next battle, dumping the Brit out in dominant fashion.
The defeat equals the 34-year-old’s heaviest ever ATP defeats, previously losing two matches 0-6, 1-6 or 1-6, 0-6.
Those two losses came against Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer respectively at the Miami Masters in 2007 and the ATP Finals 2014 in the round robin stage.
Murray has never lost 0-6, 0-6 at ATP tour level, only doing so at an ITF Futures event in 2003 when the Brit was just 16 years old and ranked 542nd in the world.
The win for Bautista Agut brings his head-to-head with Murray up 2-3 having won both their two most recent meetings.
The 33-year-old Spaniard continues his bid to equal his 2021 Doha result of reaching the final, as well as to go one better and replicate his 2019 title in Qatar.
He completes an all-Spanish quarter-final after compatriot Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, 22, himself defeated a Brit as he ousted fifth seed Dan Evans 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
The younger man actually leads their head-to-head, winning their only previous meeting in the first round of the 2021 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.
While Bautista Agut bids for a 19th career ATP final, Davidovich Fokina is on the hunt for his first.
The youngster has reached an ATP tour semi-final three times, doing so at Estoril last year and in 2019, plus Cologne in 2020.
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