Alexander Zverev has heaped praise upon Andy Murray after beating the Scot 6-4 7-6(4) in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open. Murray’s dreams of winning at Indian Wells were ended by the German following a highly accomplished performance from the world No.4 on Tuesday.
Murray was furious with the defeat, simply tweeting the word ‘F***’ in reaction afterwards.
But Zverev offered hope of future success to British fans by suggesting that this was the best he had seen the former Wimbledon and US Open winner play since he had hip surgery in 2019.
“He’s the only one of the Big Four that I hadn’t beaten yet, so I’m happy that I’ve done it,” Zverev said.
“I always knew I had a chance. The second set was an extremely high level from both of us. It could have gone both ways.
“It was a fantastic match. Andy played extremely well, maybe as well as he’s played since the [hip] surgery.
“I hope he continues playing the same way, because tennis did miss him for a long time and it’s good to have him back.”
Murray, however, was more downbeat about his performance, and was nowhere near as gushing as Zverev about the quality of the match.
“I’m not saying he played great either, but I don’t think I played well today. There were a lot of mistakes,” he said.
“There was some good stuff in there, but it was mixed in with bad. There was no consistency I don’t think. My average level was just not really there today. It was either good or bad. Yeah, I wouldn’t put that down as playing really well.
“The positive for me to take from it is I obviously had opportunities again. Yeah, I mean, I guess that’s positive. I didn’t feel like I played a great match and still had chances, so that’s positive.
“But, yeah, I’m disappointed because, I mean, I obviously want to be winning these matches. I haven’t in the last few months. Yeah, something needs to change.”
Murray has not beaten a top-five player since seeing off Novak Djokovic at the Nitto ATP Finals in November 2016 to finish the year as world No.1.
He has now fallen out of the top 170 in the world rankings as a result of the defeat.
And he showed his frustrations during the game with Zverev when he threw his racquet at his bag in fury as he was broken when leading 3-1 in the second set, later shouting: “It’s so bad, so bad”.
