Andy Murray displayed strong form for a set, but he bookended that positive play with two poor outputs and made an early exit from the American Midwest as Lucas Pouille secured a 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 victory.
Murray hit the No. 16 seed off the court in the middle set with superb forehand play, but first-set double fault problems returned to plague him in the third set, and he could not find an opening on the Frenchman’s serve.
The three-time grand slam champion appeared woefully out of sorts in the first set. He double faulted four times in his first three service games — en route to falling behind 5-0 — and faced break point in every service game.
He reached his nadir at 1-5, missing four consecutive serves from 30-30 to hand Pouille on a platter his first ever set against Murray. The wild card won a notably poor two of 13 second serve points across the first seven games.
Pouille could not keep up his level, however, and gave Murray an opening with poor net play in the opening game of the second set. The two-time Cincinnati champion, who made the final in his last appearance two years ago, lashed groundstrokes repeatedly over the 32-minute set and won the last four games to level the match.
He faced no break points in the set and, critically, double faulted just once. But that nagging problem returned immediately, as he slammed a break point second serve into the net in the opening game of the third set.
With the six-deuce game in hand, Pouille fended off challenges from Murray later in the set. He saved a break point at 2-1, forcing Murray to angrily swipe his racket at the court. He would get no more break points, though he fended off a match point on his serve before the Frenchman served out the victory.
Pouille did so with a well-paced forehand into an open court, celebrating his first-ever win over Murray with an emotional fist pump. Murray, for his part, approaches the US Open in up-and-down form after navigating a tough draw to reach the quarterfinals in Washington, but skipping Toronto and falling early in Cincinnati.
Beyond his eight double faults on Monday, Murray faced a towering 11 break points and struggled throughout on his second serve, winning just 11 of 34 points. He won only four fewer points in the match, but he snagged just three on Pouille’s serve as he mounted a desperate charge late.
