Tearful Andy Murray slams organisers after wrapping up marathon quarter-final win over Marius Copil at 3am, contemplates pulling out
Britain's Andy Murray celebrates his win over Romania's Marius Copil in the quarter-final of the Citi Open at Washington yesterday. Pic/AFP
Andy Murray hit out at the scheduling of his third-round match at the Citi Open here after finishing off a three-set victory over Marius Copil at 3.01am on Thursday.
Murray is playing just his third tournament since hip surgery in January and must now try to recover for a quarter-final against Alex De Minaur.
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The Scot even suggested he may pull out rather than risk putting his body through such an ordeal so soon in his comeback after taking three hours and two minutes to defeat Romanian Copil 6-7, 6-3, 7-6.
"I don't think I should be put in a position like this," Murray said. "[My body] doesn't feel great right now. I've had a few long matches. Finishing matches at three in the morning isn't good for anyone involved in the event, players, TV, fans, anyone. When you're expected to come back and perform the next day, I think that's unreasonable. And the sheer lateness of the hour wasn't good for players. That's something the tour needs to look at," Murray said.
After shaking hands with Copil and acknowledging the sparse crowd, Murray sat down in his chair and sobbed into his towel. "Just the emotions coming at the end of an extremely long day and a long match," he said.
Murray looked set to win the opening set against Copil, after moving 5-0 ahead in the tie-break only for the Romanian to reel off seven points in a row. Murray levelled the contest and looked the stronger in the decider but Copil pushed him all the way to a deciding tie-break. It was a third successive three-set match at the tournament for Murray.
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