Andy Murray was stunned in his opening match at the BNP Paribas Open by a man ranked 128 places below him, losing 6-4, 7-6 (4) to Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil on Saturday night.
Andy Murray suffered a shock loss to Vasek Pospisil in Indian Wells
It was, without a doubt, the biggest singles victory of Pospisil’s career. His best accomplishment in tennis to date was winning a Wimbledon doubles title with Jack Sock of the U.S.
There was little reason to believe beforehand that Murray would have so much trouble. He is ranked No. 1, owns three Grand Slam singles titles and two Olympic singles gold medals, and has about $55 million more in career earnings than Pospisil as well as a 45-0 edge in singles trophies. Plus, Murray won their four previous head-to-head matchups.
But Pospisil attacked second serves with great success and broke Murray four times while keeping him off-balance with strong net play.
In other men’s action, No. 7 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga lost to Fabio Fognini 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4 in 2½ hours, while 38-year-old, 6-foot-11 Ivo Karlovic, seeded 19th, bowed out to 21-year-old, 5-foot-7 Yoshihito Nishioka 6-4, 6-3. No. 30 Feliciano Lopez also exited.
No. 20 John Isner hit 23 aces, had zero double faults and never faced a break point while edging Mikhail Kukushkin 7-6 (0), 7-6 (6), while other winners included No. 3 Stan Wawrinka, No. 8 Dominic Thiem, No. 10 Gael Monfils, No. 13 Tomas Berdych and No. 11 David Goffin.
