Andy Murray blames his own ‘poor attitude’ for his straight-sets loss to Diego Schwartzman at the European Open as latest defeat leaves him still stuck outside the world’s top 150
- Andy Murray is out of the European Open after losing to Diego Schwartzman
- He lost in straight sets – 6-4, 7-6 – losing the big points against the Argentine
- The former British No 1 was feeling the effects of an epic first-round tie
- His match against Frances Tiafoe lasted three hours and 45 minutes this week
Andy Murray has blamed his straight-set defeat to Diego Schwartzman at the European Open on his own bad attitude in a brutally honest post-match interview.
The 34-year-old had made it through to the last-16 of the tournament in Antwerp after a near four-hour epic against Frances Tiafoe, and he appeared to be feeling the effects of that on court.
Speaking immediately after, Murray was in no doubt about who was to blame for the loss, noting: ‘I didn’t make as many good decisions as I would have liked in the second set dealing with adversity.
Andy Murray was angry at himself after crashing out of the European Open in Antwerp
Murray kept things tight against Diego Schwartzman (R) but lost on the big points in the match
‘Mentally I was poor and my attitude was poor on the court.’
Murray is back fit and playing regularly after years of injuries, and is set for a busy few months, with the Erste Bank Open in Vienna next week.
Next month’s Stockholm Open is also on the cards, and he could yet play at the Paris Masters between those two events.
‘There’ll be a decision on the final Paris wildcard on Monday but I might even play the qualis [qualifiers] there,’ Murray revealed, before adding: ‘Sport is a results business.
‘Play well or poorly doesn’t really matter if you lose matches. You need to be winning. That’s what I want in the last few tournaments. They are really strong tournaments and there are no guarantees the results will come but I want to win more matches.’
The Brit looked dead on his feet after winning the longest best-of-three-set match of 2021 in the first round against Frances Tiafoe on Tuesday
The match on Thursday night was tight, but Murray lost the big points, with No 2 seed Schwartzman winning 6-4, 7-6 in the pair’s first meeting.
The diminutive Argentine, 29, saluted Murray after the match, saying: ‘When I grew up playing tennis, I was watching Andy, Roger and Rafa, so I have huge respect for him as an opponent.
‘I said to him it was a pleasure to play against him. We had not played before and he is coming back from an injury and every week he is playing better and moving better. I really enjoyed the match against him.’
Murray raced into a 4-1 lead but lost five games on the spin to lose the first set.
He recovered from a break down to force a tiebreak in the second, but the consistent and fleet-footed Schwartzman edged it 8-6.
For Murray, another decent opportunity to get his ranking moving in the right direction has gone by the wayside. He remains outside the top 150.
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