Andy Murray Upset! Other Seeds: Troicki, Gasquet, Benneteau, Nishikori, and F. Mayer All Lose!

Written by: Staff on 11th March 2012

Andy Murray Upset! Other Seeds: Troicki, Gasquet, Benneteau, Nishikori, and F. Mayer All Lose!

epa03140414 Andy Murray of Great Britain pumps his fist during a break in his match against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain at the BNP Paribas Open tennis in Indian Wells, California, USA ,10 March 2012. EPA/PAUL BUCK |

Seeded players were the hunted during Saturday’s BNP Paribas Open coverage. In an impressive showing by Guillermo Garcia-Lopez handed Andy Murray a stunning 6-4, 6-2 defeat during the night session. Well-timed ground strokes including some booming one-handed backhands left the Scot retreating most of the night. Murray also seemed caught between personalities on court, whether to play his new aggressive style or go back to a rope-a-dope cat and mouse game with his Spanish opponent. Unable to find a groove with either style, Murray struggled to find the court with his shots and his mother Judy was left shaking her head over and over in the player’s box.

American Ryan Harrison notched another big win in his young career by knocking out Viktor Troicki 7-6(5), 6-3, handing the Serb his second first-match lost of the tournament (Troicki teamed with Djokovic on Friday in doubles, but fell to Granollers/F.Lopez). Harrison backed up a big serve with over-powering ground strokes and led both sets by 5-2. Despite his leads, Harrison would need a need a tie-break in the first set, and a break at 5-3 in the second set to close out Troicki.

Richard Gasquet was on his way to beating Albert Ramos comfortably but when the Spaniard stole the second set, Gasquet seemed to go away in the third. Gasquet is still ranked in the top 20 at #16 but this loss shows that the depth of tennis is so great that nobody is safe.

Gasquet’s compatriot Julien Benneteau also had trouble Saturday, falling 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 to Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden. And the list of upsets continues! Fans were treated to a very entertaining night match between Santiago Giraldo and Japan’s #1 Kei Nishikori. Giraldo was able to over-power Nishikori 7-5, 6-2.

To round out the day, the #18 seeded Florian Mayer lost in straight sets to Pablo Andujar 6-2, 6-4.

Topics: Andy Murray, Florian Mayer, Guillermo Garcia Lopez, Julien Benneteau, Kei Nishikori, Matthew Ebden, Novak Djokovic, Pablo Andujar, Richard Gasquet, Ryan Harrison, Viktor Troicki