Alex de Minaur induced a meltdown from tennis legend Andy Murray after saving a match point and coming from a 5-2 down at the Paris Masters.
The Australian reached the second round with a 7-6(4) 4-6 7-5 win over Murray - who couldn't contain his frustration after having the match seemingly sewed up.
After trading breaks in the first set, De Minaur outlasted Murray in a tiebreak, needing three set points to get the job done.
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Murray went down a break early in the second set before fighting back to claim it 6-4 and he took all the momentum in the deciding set.
The Brit raced to a double break and 5-2 lead before dropping his own serve twice and squandering a match point at 5-4.
De Minaur won five consecutive games to win the final set 7-5, needing only one match point to get the job done.
😤 Andy Murray is down a racquet after letting a 5-2 final set lead slip against Alex De Minaur - the Scot's sixth-straight loss to the Aussie | Deets 👉 https://t.co/B95FuIQVAv pic.twitter.com/dCk5LPhMA1
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_AUS) October 30, 2023
Murray's frustration culminated a racquet-smashing episode and a post-match admission that he wasn't 'enjoying' tennis currently.
"It’s frustrating," Murray said.
"I’m not really enjoying it just now, I would say, in terms of how I feel on the court and how I’m playing.
"The past five, six months haven’t been that enjoyable, which doesn’t help things, so I need to try and [get] some of that enjoyment back because playing a match like that, there’s not really much positivity there.
"When I play a good point, I’m not really getting behind myself and then, in the important moments, that will to win and fight that has always been quite a big, big part of my game.
"What happened today, I don’t remember it happening before. Those sorts of situations have happened quite a lot this year, and that’s not really me.
“It’s not enjoyable."
The Aussie will now play either Benjamin Bonzi or Dusan Lajovic in the round-of-32.
Other Australians at the Paris Masters
De Minaur is the only remaining Aussie at Paris Masters after Alexei Popyrin, Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson were bundled out in the first round.
Popyrin went down in straight sets to Chilean talent Nicolas Jarry, Purcell was dismissed in straight sets by Karen Khachanov, while Thompson lost in three to Yoshihito Nishioka.
