Murray ousted by Bublik at ATP Hall of Fame Open

Bublik fired 12 aces against five double faults and won 80 per cent of his first serve points to eliminate the 35-year-old Scotsman in the grass-court event.

Andy Murray of Britain in action at the Hall of Fame Open in Newport on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: Steven Senne

Britain’s former world number one Andy Murray was knocked out of the ATP Hall of Fame Open, falling to Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik 7-5, 6-4 in a Friday quarterfinal.

World number 42 Bublik fired 12 aces against five double faults and won 80 per cent of his first serve points to eliminate the 35-year-old Scotsman in the grass-court event and line up a semifinal clash with Australian Jason Kubler.

“It’s great to be in the semifinals again,” Bublik said. “I don’t have any tournaments over the next two or three weeks so I’m engaged. I want to get as many matches as I can.”

Kubler, ranked 102nd in the world, beat fellow Australian James Duckworth 7-5, 7-6 (7/3) to reach his first ATP semifinal.

The victory ended Kubler’s four-match losing streak to Duckworth, a day after Kubler notched his first win over a top-10 player with an upset of top-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Americans John Isner and Maxime Cressy meet in Saturday’s other semifinal.

Former world number one Murray is a three-time Grand Slam champion, winning the 2012 US Open and 2013 and 2016 Wimbledon titles as well as Olympic gold in 2012 and 2016.

Murray, ranked 52nd, was chasing a 47th career ATP crown while Bublik, 25, won his first ATP title at Montpellier in February.

Injury-nagged Murray has not won a title since the 2019 European Open but was runner-up in January at Sydney and last month in Stuttgart.

Bublik improved to 2-3 against Murray and has split their four meetings this year.

Murray’s first double fault gave Bublik the match’s first break point and he took advantage with a backhand winner to seize a 6-5 lead, then held on a service winner to claim the first set after 57 minutes.

Murray double faulted to surrender a break to open the second set, but Murray broke back level at 1-1 on a successful challenge when a Bublik shot was ruled out.

After a foot fault call that irked Bublik, he broke again for a 4-3 lead and held twice to take the victory after one hour and 47 minutes.

“The grasscourt season as a whole there were some good moments, but also some tough ones,” Murray said.

“Today’s match and the loss at Wimbledon were disappointing and frustrating for me, but then I also had my best wins in a while in Stuttgart.

“So a bit up and down, but a little bit of progress overall and I’ll try and keep that going through the hard-court summer.”