Murray thrashed 6-0 6-1 in by Bautista Agut in the last-16; Dan Evans also out of the Qatar Open after suffered a three-set defeat against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
Thursday 17 February 2022 16:21, UK
Andy Murray has been knocked out of the Qatar Open after suffering one of the heaviest defeats of his career against Roberto Bautista Agut in Doha.
Murray - a two-time winner in Doha - began the week with an impressive win over Taro Daniel, avenging his loss against the Japanese player in the Australian Open, but was outplayed by a dominant Bautista Agut on Wednesday evening.
Going head-to-head for the first time since the 2019 Australian Open, where Murray was thought to be retiring after a five-set defeat, Bautista Agut took just 66 minutes to thrash the former world No 1 6-0 6-1.
Murray was on receiving end of a bagel during a frustrating opening set lasting just 24 minutes, where he won only three points on serve and was broken three times by the second seed.
The first set was the first time since 2015 that Murray lost a set without winning a single game, although the Scot eventually got on the board when he held serve in the second game of the next set.
Bautista Agut, who won the Doha title in 2019 and reached last year's final, rattled through the next five games and broke Murray twice more to complete a one-sided victory and ease into the quarter-finals.
The Spaniard will now play compatriot Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who battled back from a set down to defeat Briton Dan Evans - the fifth seed - 6-4 5-7 6-4 in the last-16.
World No 13 Cameron Norrie, meanwhile, had success in the second round of the Delray Beach Open with a straight-sets win over Germany's Oscar Otte.
The Briton defeated Otte 6-3 7-5 to set up a quarter-final against Sebastian Korda on Florida's Gold Coast.
In other news, the group stage of the 2022 Davis Cup Finals will be held in mid-September, the International Tennis Federation said on Thursday, in the wake of players' pleas against a late finish to the season.
The 2021 edition of the men's team competition finished on December 5 at the Madrid Arena when a Daniil Medvedev-led Russian team defeated Croatia in the final, leaving players with less than a month before the new season kicked off in Australia.
The 2022 Finals will see 16 nations competing in four groups across four cities with each staging one group of four teams from September 14-18.
The top eight teams will then advance to the knockout stages, which will serve as the season-ending event on the men's tennis calendar and will be held from November 23-27 in a fifth host city.
The season will finish, therefore, a week earlier than in 2021.
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