Murray stuns Ljubicic in opening-match upset

By Bill Scott Oct 18, 2006, 17:03 GMT

Croatian Ivan Ljubicic returns a ball to his British opponent, Andy Murray, during the second tour Masters Series Madrid 2006 tennis match, played in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday 18 October 2006. EPA/J.J. Guillén

Madrid - Andy Murray stunned world number 3 Ivan Ljubicic 6- 4, 3-6, 6-3 Wednesday in the second round of the Madrid Masters to delay the Croatian's likely ascension to a spot in the year-end final.

Murray claimed the biggest scalp of the week so far at the Madrid arena as he defeated last weekend's champion at Vienna.

The British teenager forced Ljubicic to wait another week to see if he qualifies for November's Masters Cup in Shanghai, where he would have needed a final to have clinched at the weekend behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Ljubicic lost the Madrid title match a year ago, leading Nadal two sets to love before the Spaniard turned the momentum in dramatic fashion.

Ljubicic was not the only titleholder from last week to crash at the first hurdle after a bye.

Stockholm champion James Blake was dispatched 6-4 3-6 7-6 (7-5) by Belgian Vliegen Wednesday. Moscow winner Nikolay Davydenko was hoping to buck the losing trend as he faced Swede Joachim Johansson.

'When you're serving at 6-5 you should win the match,' said Blake of his disappointing third set. 'This is not the way you want to go out.'

Like Ljubicic, Blake, joint sixth in the race to Shanghai, must wait out the week as rivals for the spots in the eight-man field continues to play.

Murray won the first set against Ljubicic, dropped the second as the Croatian rallied, but sealed victory on his eighth ace after two hours, 13 minutes of drama.

Struggling Thai Paradorn Srichaphan lost his second match to Fernando Gonzalez six years after dropping his first in a 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4 exit.

The 27-year-old must now rally in his final 2006 events in order to avoid a negative season finish after dropping to 27-30. He first lost to Gonzalez in Florida in 2000.

Paradorn, a semi-finalist over the past month in Beijing and at home in Bangkok, was unable to take the match by the throat, missing a chance to claim the early lead as he failed to serve out the opening set.

Paradorn converted on only a fifth of his ten break pint chances, while striking 53 unforced errors and losing serve four times in 2 hours, 24 minutes.

Gonzalez played and lost his first final of the season against world number 3 Ljubicic in Vienna.

American Robby Ginepri beat Croatian 12th seed Mario Ancic 7-6 (7- 5), 7-6 (7-5) for a place in the third round, a result which put provisional tenth Ancic's Masters Cup campaign in danger.

American qualifier Mardy Fish was taking on title holder Nadal later, with local media reporting possible foot problems for the second seed.

Czech Tomas Berdych and German Tommy Haas also both won.