By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday August 1, 2022

 

Andy Murray ran out of gas in the heat and fell in three sets to Mikael Ymer on Monday at the Citi Open.

Photo Source: Getty

Andy Murray had high hopes for getting his ranking up this summer, and possibly getting seeded for the US Open. But the three-time Slam champion is off to a slowish start in the States, after falling to Sweden’s Mikael Ymer, the World No.115, in first-round action on Monday at the Citi Open.



Ymer played a solid, gritty match in grueling heat, saving four set points in the opening set, including three in the tiebreak, and dominating the third set to win 7-6(8), 4-6, 6-1.

"I'm excited," Ymer said in his on-court interview. "It was the first day [of the North American hard court swing], so obviously a lot left to do, but it's a very good start of the American swing."

Murray, ranked 50, appeared to be suffering in the heat throughout the course of the contest, while the 23-year-old Ymer kept pushing despite winning only 13 of 40 second-serve points.

Murray lacked the energy necessary in the third set, after rallying from 3-1 down to take the second, and Ymer quickly raced out to a 4-0, before clinching the victory in two hours and 50 minutes.

"It was disappointing obviously," Murray said. "I thought there was some good tennis in the first set. After that both of us were struggling a bit physically. The level of the tennis was not great. But, yeah, obviously had chances in the first set to close that out. I had set point in 6-5, then two in the tiebreaker, two or three in the tiebreaker, and didn't get it."

Ymer will face 15th seeded Aslan Karatsev in the second round.