Andy Murray suffered another setback with a marathon loss to Czech teenager Jakub Mensik at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open second round on Wednesday.
The 18-year-old will next take on top seed Andrey Rublev, who cruised past Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-4 in just 57 minutes to reach his fourth quarter-final in as many events for 2024.
Former world number one Murray had ended a six-match losing streak in the opening round on Tuesday, but was edged out after almost three and a half hours on court and three tie-breaks, losing 7-6 (8/6), 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/4).
Mensik is enjoying a breakthrough season on the ATP Tour. He came through qualifying before losing in five sets to Hubert Hurkacz at the Australian Open and defeated Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the Doha first round.
The world number 116 served 12 aces past Murray, who missed two set points in the first tie-break.
“I’m just happy. It was a tough match today,” said Mensik.
“Andy is an unbelievable player, I know that. When I was young, I watched him win Wimbledon two times, so it’s unbelievable that he can still compete with the best players in the world.”
Mensik secured the victory on his first match point, after earlier failing to serve for the match twice in the deciding set as Murray battled back from 5-2 and a double-break behind. He struck 18 winners including 12 aces, as he found a way past the resilient Murray.
Murray came so close to pulling off yet another remarkable comeback at an event where he last year notched two victories after saving match points.
The Briton could not complete the job this time around, however, and he will be left to rue a missed backhand volley on the first of two set points he held from 6-4 in the opening-set tie-break.
Mensik has now risen 14 places to No. 102 in the ATP live rankings as a result of his Doha run so far. “The first set it was tough with the conditions, the wind started a little bit,” reflected Mensik, who is the third player born in 2005 or later to reach an ATP quarter-final after Dino Prizmic and Shang Juncheng.
“The tie-break was not such good quality, and I was a little bit lucky in the end. “In the third set I was 5-2, and then when it was 5-5 I just said, ‘Go on. This guy will not give me any points’. I tried to stay calm and in the tie-break I’m just super happy I stayed focused until the end.”
Rublev’s passage to the last eight could hardly have been more different to his next opponent Mensik’s. The top seed overcame Gasquet easily.
“I’m really happy to be able to win in straight sets,” said Rublev.
“It feels better than to have this stress with three sets and you don’t know how the match is going to go. It’s always nice to play shorter to be ready for tomorrow.”
The 2020 champion Rublev is now 11-4 in Doha.
He will seek to improve that record in his maiden clash with Mensik, whose game he is not wholly familiar with.
“(Today is) the first time I saw him and I can tell that the guy is very talented,” said Rublev.
“He’s really big already for his age and serves really hard. I think that the serve is one of his best weapons, from what I saw in the match against Andy. So we’ll see. He has strong strokes and tries to play aggressive. I have to prepare and be ready for tomorrow.”
A trio of other seeded players also booked their quarter-final spots on Wednesday, including Karen Khachanov, who downed Fabian Marozsan 6-4, 7-5 for his 200th tour-level win.
The 27-year-old second seed Khachanov will next take on Emil Ruusuvuori, who beat Christopher O’Connell 6-3, 6-3.
Third seed Ugo Humbert raced past Pavel Kotov 6-4, 6-1 to set a match with his fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils or Zhang Zhizhen, while fourth seed Alexander Bublik beat Marton Fucsovics 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to face Alexei Popyrin. Australia’s Popyrin saw off qualifier Hugo Grenier 7-6(3), 6-7(8), 6-1.