There was disappointment for Andy Murray on Thursday when the three-time Grand Slam winner was forced to drop out of his Madrid Open clash with world No 1 Novak Djokovic due to illness.
The third-round tie would have been the first time the two old rivals faced each other since the Qatar Open final in January 2017, a match that Djokovic won in three sets. The Serbian holds a 25-11 advantage over Murray in their head-to-head record.
A post on the tournament’s Twitter feed read: “Unfortunately, Andy Murray is unable to take to the Manolo Santana Stadium due to illness. We wish you a speedy recovery Andy Murray!”
The Scot, who is now ranked 78 in the world, had made a fine start to the tournament after accepting a wildcard entry, beating Dominic Thiem and Denis Shapovalov to secure what would have been the 37th meeting between Murray and 20-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic.
After beating Shapovalov on Wednesday, Murray said that he was looking forward to taking on Djokovic. “He’s the world No 1 and I’ve got a metal hip,” Murray, playing his first clay-court match in two years, said. “I didn’t know I’d get opportunities to play matches like this again. In theory I shouldn’t have a chance in the match.
“But I’ve worked my hardest, put myself in a great position and it’s a fantastic opportunity to play against him again on a big court in a huge tournament.”
Provided he recovers in time, the 34-year-old must now decide whether to play in qualifying for next week’s Italian Open, while the French Open is still potentially on the table despite Murray previously saying he would not play and would instead concentrate on preparing for the grass-court season.
Djokovic now moves directly into a quarter-final against either last year's Wimbledon semi-finalist Hubert Hurkacz of Poland or Serbia's Dusan Lajovic.
The Serb, a three-time Madrid champion, is finding his rhythm after competing sparingly this year following his deportation from Australia over his Covid vaccination status, preventing him playing in the Australian Open.
