Federico Delbonis grabbed the greatest victory of his career and, in the process, pulled off the biggest upset of the 2016 BNP Paribas Open so far after defeating Andy Murray 6-4, 4-6, 7-6.
Murray already showed signs of frailty in his opening win against Marcel Granollers where the rallies where dictated by the Spaniard, and against Delbonis it was more of the same. The Scot struggled to produce winners and also hit his first serve much slower than usual, offering a bland version of his tennis which didn’t manage to harm his opponent.
The Argentine made the first move at 3-3 in the first set when he broke Murray’s watered-down and serve and then closed out the first set comfortably. In the second set, Murray continued to struggle on his own service and had to fend off break point opportunities on multiple occasions and eventually even took a break himself to level things out as Delbonis was left to feel that if he didn’t take his opponent today then he would never be presented with a similar opportunity to seal such a notable win.
The self-belief was zapped out of Delbonis and Murray raced away to a 4-1 lead but the Scot just wasn’t at the races today and he kept leaving the door open for the feisty South American, who played much tennis when he was down. Delbonis not only got back into the set but broke to serve it out at 6-5 but it was in this position, once again, when he retreated into his shell and just pushed the ball into play. Ultimately, it would have to be a tie break to decide who went out more than who went on as neither player showed the capacity to take the upper hand.
The Argentine got himself to 6-3 in the breaker and once again all eyes were placed on him to see if he could find the nerve to close it out and on this occasion one match point sufficed as he clinched the biggest win of his career and sent Murray packing. All of this coming in a week where the once great Argentine tennis showed signs of a revival with the return of Del Potro and impressive performances of Guido Pella.
Federico Delbonis will face the winner of Albert Ramos and Gael Monfils in the last sixteen.
