(Tennis news) Andy Murray was forced to withdraw from his clash against Novak Djokovic at the Madrid Open due to illness. The pair were expected to face each other for the 37th time on tour and for the first time in five years. A statement on the Madrid Open’s twitter feed read “Unfortunately, Andy Murray is unable to take to the Manolo Santana Stadium due to illness." The Scottish tennis player had accepted a wildcard entry to compete in the Spanish capital despite initially planning to skip the entire clay-court season in order to focus on the grass-court events.
In other results, British number 2 Dan Evans was knocked out of the tournament 7-6 7-5 by Andrey Rublev. The match between the two took place at the centre court as Djokovic and Murray’s fixture was called off. Evans managed to break Rublev in the opening game of the contest and had a setpoint during the tiebreak after he failed to convert two opportunities to go 5-3 up in the second set. World number 8 Andrey Rublev will now face Grigor Dimitrov or Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals while Novak Djokovic will take on Poland's Hubert Hurkacz.
As for Cameron Norrie, Britain’s number 1 tennis player fell short against Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and lost the match 6-4 6-7(7) 6-3. It was Alcaraz’s 19th birthday and the teenager prevailed against his more experienced opponent despite being pushed hard. Alcaraz will now face Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals after the 35 year old defeated David Goffin 6-3 5-7 7-6(9). In the post match interview, Nadal revealed that he used Real Madrid’s triumph over Manchester City in the Champions League semi-final as inspiration.
Nadal said “Yesterday was an unforgettable night. The spirit that Real Madrid had was just incredible. For me today, in some way, it was an inspiration. It was a tough match, David played at a very high level but at the same time I am not completely happy, because I think I had to finish the match in straight sets, without a doubt."
Also read: Dan Evans and Norrie progress into the third round of Madrid Open
