Andy Murray news: Former world No 1 brushed aside by impressive Jannik Sinner in Dubai

ATP Tour
Andy Murray shouts during a match

Reaching the latter stages of tournaments remains a struggle for Andy Murray as the three-time Grand Slam winner made another second-round exit, this time going down in straight sets against Jannik Sinner at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

After starting the year with a runner’s-up finish at the Sydney International, Murray has made a string of early exits as he lost in the second round of the Australian Open, Rotterdam Open, Qatar Open and now Dubai.

Having made heavy weather of qualifier Christopher O’Connell in the first round of the ATP 500 event on Monday, the Briton struggled to really get a foothold in the match against the fourth-seeded Sinner.

The Italian was always in charge and eventually won 7-5, 6-2 in one hour and 45 minutes.

Both players gave as good as they got in the opening set before Sinner fashioned the first break point of the match in game five. Murray saved the first one, but was unable to prevent the break at the next point.

The wheels came off for the former world No 1 later in the set as Sinner broke to love in game 11 with the Italian winning five games in a row as he also broke in game two of the second set.

A second break in game five all but sealed the match and Sinner, who will take on fifth seed Hubert Hurkacz in the quarter-final, eventually went on to win on his third match point.

Andy Murray Jannik Sinner

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