By Christopher Lancette
MONTREAL – South African Ken Anderson put the prestige that came with the name of his No. 4-ranked opponent Andy Murray out of his mind at the Rogers Cup on Tuesday – sending the two-time defending champion home with a 6-3, 6-1 loss.
“I think that’s probably one of the biggest things a lot of players have to deal with when you’re playing the big names of our sport,” the thirty-fifth ranked Anderson. “You really have to try your best to put that outside of your thoughts and really just treat it as another tennis match. It’s definitely tougher said than done. Going out there, I felt excited and ready for a challenge. … Even though he might not have been playing his best, putting away somebody like that also is pretty tough.”
Anderson broke Murray’s serve early in each set and cruised to a win that took only an hour and change to complete.
Murray looked listless throughout the short match, playing so poorly that it even caught Anderson off guard.
“It was probably not exactly what I was expecting,” said of Murray’s poor performance. At the same time, I think some of the way I played, the way I served today, I think I did make it pretty tough for him. I felt I came forward very well. My game moving forward, I executed very well.”
Anderson played superbly, earning what may be considered the biggest win of his career. Murray noted that Anderson’s early breaks did him in.
“He served very well,” Murray said. “Well, that’s the best part of his game. When he serves well, he’s difficult to break. Then the rest is your game. You can get a bit more confidence if you’re holding service games comfortably. He was able to play a bit more aggressively maybe than normal today because he got up so early in both sets. If he serves well, it’s a very fast court, it’s tough to break. He’ll be dangerous.”
Murray isn’t the only highly seeded player to say “au revoir” today. No. 3 doubles seed Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi fell to Tomas Berdych – missing what would have been the match-winning shot by an inch before losing the third-set tiebreaker.
Photo credit © Won-ok Kim
