Murray makes winning return in doubles at Queen’s Club

Associated PressJun 20, 2019, 10:33 PM EDT

Getty Images

LONDON — That familiar fist pump. That indomitable spirit. It was as if Andy Murray had never been away.

The three-time Grand Slam champion enjoyed a winning return to competitive tennis Thursday after five months away from the sport, combining with Feliciano Lopez to beat top-seeded Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the doubles at the Queen’s Club.

Murray was taking the first steps of his tentative comeback from what he hopes was career-saving hip surgery 143 days ago. It was even longer ago that he was breaking down in tears at the Australian Open in January, saying he was planning to retire after Wimbledon because of the severe pain he felt on a daily basis.

Yet Murray moved well, served well and, crucially, stayed pain-free throughout the 7-6 (5), 6-3 win in front of an excitable crowd on Center Court at the grass-court event.

“It was brilliant, I enjoyed it a lot,” the former top-ranked Murray said. “I was a bit slow at the beginning but got better as the match went along. I’m really fortunate to be playing tennis again.

“I felt quite relaxed in the build-up, but we said as we were walking onto the court that we were starting to feel a bit nervous. But you need those butterflies.”

Victory was wrapped up in under 75 minutes, Murray and Lopez clicking like a veteran doubles partnership even though they had never played together, and had barely trained together.

The fact that Lopez had been compelled to issue a fierce denial of links to allegations of match-fixing in Spain a day earlier was not ideal preparation, either.

At the end of a first set that went with serve, a ferocious forehand from Murray clipped the net tape on its way past Cabal and clinched the tiebreaker. That fist pump was on display from Murray following a succession of winners in the second set.

Cabal and Farah are a slick combination but couldn’t handle what came at them, with Murray volleying like a doubles specialist.

Lopez stood back after victory was secured to allow Murray to take the applause of the crowd.

Earlier in the singles, defending champion Marin Cilic, former winner Grigor Dimitrov and 2018 Wimbledon finalist Kevin Anderson all lost.

Cilic and Anderson were knocked out in the second round, while Dimitrov didn’t make it past the first round having waited four days to play his opening match.

Diego Schwartzman of Argentina beat the fifth-seeded Cilic 6-4, 6-4 and Anderson, the second seed, was defeated 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 by Gilles Simon.

Dimitrov followed Anderson on Court 1 and fell 6-4, 6-4 to Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Top-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas played two matches in one day as the rain-hit event tried to catch up, and he won both against Kyle Edmund and then Jeremy Chardy. He came from behind to beat Chardy 4-6, 7-6 (0), 7-6 (4).

Outspoken Australian player Nick Kyrgios swore at officials and accused them of “rigging” his first-round match against Roberto Carballes Baena, which he won 7-6 (4), 6-3.

Kyrgios lost his second-round match a few hours later, though, 6-7(4), 7-6 (3), 7-5 to Auger-Aliassime.

Iga Swiatek out of Miami Open with rib injury

Associated PressMar 22, 2023, 12:29 PM EDT

Getty Images

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Defending champion Iga Swiatek withdrew from the Miami Open because of a rib injury that she is hoping will heal during a break from competition.

The No. 1-ranked Swiatek, a 21-year-old from Poland, also will sit out her country’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifier matches against Kazakhstan on April 13-14.

“I wanted to wait ’til the last minute” to decide whether to play in Miami,” Swiatek said at a news conference at the site of the hard-court tournament. “We were kind of checking if this is the kind of injury you can still play with or this is kind when you can get things worse. So I think the smart move for me is to pull out of this tournament because I want to rest and take care of it properly.”

She was supposed to face Claire Liu in the second round.

As a seeded player, three-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek received a first-round bye at an event she won a year ago during a 37-match unbeaten run that was the longest in women’s tennis in a quarter of a century.

“I was also aware at the beginning of the season that it’s going to be hard for me to defend all these (ranking) points,” she said, “because … these streaks, winning all these tournaments – looking logically and statistically, it’s not like it’s going to happen every year.”

Swiatek said after a 6-2, 6-2 loss to eventual champion Elena Rybakina in the BNP Paribas Open semifinals that her rib was bothering her. She explained in Miami that the problem first surfaced late in her quarterfinal victory against Sorana Cirstea a day earlier in California.

“Basically, it’s not like it happened in one minute or one second. It’s not, like, a serious thing, because we caught it … pretty early. So I felt like it was a process,” Swiatek said. “At first with these minor things, your body doesn’t feel anything.”

She said the issue was a problem “in certain movements,” including a “little bit when I served,” but Swiatek also said she’s not too worried about how long she will be sidelined.

The next Grand Slam tournament is the French Open, which Swiatek won last year for the second time. Play begins in Paris on May 28.

Instead of playing Swiatek, Liu will go up against 94th-ranked Julia Grabher, who lost in qualifying but now gets to move into the draw.

Liu advanced Tuesday when her first-round opponent, Katerina Siniakova, stopped playing in the second set because of a hurt wrist. Siniakova also pulled out of the doubles event with Barbora Krejcikova; the Czech duo has won the past four Grand Slam tournaments they’ve entered together, and seven major doubles titles overall.

Giorgi hits 14 double-faults at Miami Open, hangs on to win

Associated PressMar 21, 2023, 11:38 PM EDT

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Camila Giorgi hit 14 double-faults, blew a 5-0 lead in the final set and needed four match points before finally pulling out a 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) victory against Kaia Kanepi in the first round of the Miami Open.

The match lasted 3 hours, 32 minutes, tying for the longest on the WTA Tour this season. The players combined for 30 aces – 19 by Kanepi, who also had seven double-faults.

In the third set, Kanepi was not moving well, and Giorgi raced to a big edge. But after dropping just two of her initial 15 service games, the Italian got broken twice in a row while serving for the victory at 5-1 and 5-3 in the third set.

Kanepi saved one match point at 5-3, another at 5-4 and another in the concluding tiebreaker. Giorgi finally ended things on her next chance with a cross-court forehand winner. She’ll next face 14th-seeded Victoria Azarenka, a three-time champion in Miami and two-time winner at the Australian Open.

All seeded players at the hard-court tournament received first-round byes. Women’s matches in the main draw began Tuesday; the men start Wednesday.

It was a rough afternoon for the Czech teenage sisters Brenda and Linda Fruhvirtova. First Brenda, who turns 16 on April 2, lost the initial nine games of a 6-0, 7-5 loss to Wang Xiyu. And then Linda, 17, exited with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 loss against qualifier Katherine Sebov, who now meets No. 3 Jessica Pegula.

In other action, Rebecca Marino eliminated Yulia Putintseva 7-6 (4), 6-2 to set up a second-round match against 2022 French Open runner-up Coco Gauff; Irina-Camelia Begu trailed 2-0 in the first set and then 5-1 in the second before coming back in both to beat wild-card entry Alexandra Eala 6-2, 7-5; and Marta Kostyuk was a 6-3, 6-2 winner against Elisabetta Cocciaretto.

Claire Liu, an American who is ranked 59th, advanced to a second-round meeting against defending champion and No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek when Katerina Siniakova stopped playing in the second set Tuesday because of an injured wrist.