1st November, 2012
Towering Polish qualifier Jerzy Janowicz upset Andy Murray 5-7, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 on Thursday to complete the early exit of the elite from the Paris Masters.
Murray, seeded third, missed a match point as he followed second seed Novak Djokovic out the door of the Bercy arena 24 hours after the tepid Serb had been beaten by American Sam Querrey.
Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, seeded 7th is also out of the tournament as he was beaten by home-boy, Michael Llodra, 6-4, 6-3.
World number one Roger Federer and injured number four Rafael Nadal did not play the event, which wraps up the ATP regular season and will decide the last two qualifiers for the eight-man World Tour Finals starting on Monday in London.
Contender Janko Tipsarevic stayed in the race as he knocked out rival Juan Monaco with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga can become the seventh man through if he wins his later match against Spain’s Nicolas Almagro, who would be eliminated from year-end consideration.
Murray had never been beyond the Bercy quarter-finals and looked like having the perfect chance to fix that blemish in his record.
But beanpole Janowicz upset the form book with his huge serve, which produced 22 aces and 51 winners in just under two-and-a-half hours.
“He played aggressive. He moves pretty good, serves very well. He’s unpredictable,” said Murray, who was heading to London within hours.
“When you’re on your serve (with a match point) you must close the match.”
The 21-year-old winner claimed the biggest success of his career on his second match point and fell to the ground with his hands over his eyes lying on the court in pure joy.
“This was the most unbelievable day in my life. I beat the Olympic champion, US Open champion. I beat Andy Murray.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling for me. I feel like in a few minutes I’m going to wake up and it’s gonna be everything gone.
“I don’t know actually what I’m supposed to say because it’s really hard to describe this feeling. It’s not easy for me to believe what actually happened.”
Murray did not want to predict how the exits of himself and Djokovic might affect their showings in London next week.
“Only time will tell really. A lot of the players will have had slightly different run ins to the O2. Obviously me and Novak lost early this week; Roger didn’t play, and then I think the rest of the guys are still in here,” he said.
“You never know, maybe the guys that go deep here they’ll have confidence from having a good tournament. But they may arrive a little bit later and might take a while to get used to the conditions.