MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Andy Murray may have to wait awhile before he’s picked again to win a Grand Slam tournament.
Touted by British bookmakers as a favorite at the Australian Open, Murray lost to No. 14 Fernando Verdasco of Spain in five sets Monday in the fourth round. He twice blew a one-set lead and missed chances to break serve in the pivotal sixth game of the deciding set. He then dropped serve in the subsequent game and was beaten 2-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
All of which was a big letdown for Murray, who defeated No. 1 Rafael Nadal and No. 2 Roger Federer in an exhibition in Abu Dhabi this month leading to the season’s first major.
“I don’t know if I’ll be the favorite for a Slam in the next year or so after today,” he said.
Murray went out in the first round last year, the initial victim of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s surprising charge to the Australian Open final.
The 21-year-old Scot’s biggest aim is to end Britain’s run of 73 years without a winner of a men’s major.
“I’ll try and learn from it … come back a better player,” said Murray, who finished last season with five titles and made a run to the U.S. Open final. “I’m thinking that last year I had a tough loss.
This year obviously is a tough loss, as well. I came back stronger last year.” Nadal had a far easier time, downing 2007 runner-up Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. He has yet to drop a set ahead of his quarterfinal against sixth-seeded Gilles Simon.
“I am playing well, but you never know if it’s going to be enough,” said Nadal, who had 33 winners and just 11 unforced errors.
Verdasco will meet fifth-seeded Tsonga, a Frenchman who defeated No.
9 James Blake 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in a night match interrupted by a fireworks display around the stadium to celebrate Australia Day.
Of the top eight seeded players, Murray will be the only one missing from the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park. Never in the Open era have all eight top seeds filled every spot in a Grand Slam quarterfinal lineup.
He wasn’t the only casualty Monday — Melbourne Park nearly had to establish its own emergency room.
Three matches finished early because of illness or injuries. The opener at Rod Laver Arena finished with Simon holding a 2-1 set advantage when friend and fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils decided he couldn’t continue with an injured right wrist.
In the following match on center court, Serena Williams lost the first set 6-3 to 13th-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
Williams, annoyed with her erratic first serve, screamed at herself and drew a warning for an obscenity.
The 19-year-old Azarenka woke up sick and was dizzy and in tears when she quit after going down a break at 2-4 in the second.
“The doctors didn’t want me to keep going, but I wanted to keep trying and see how I do,” Azarenka said. “But it was probably not a very good idea because it just gave me even more trouble after.” Azarenka needed a medical timeout in the second set, but lasted only 1 1/2 more games.
Williams, who has won in Australia every alternate year since 2003, next plays Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 U.S. Open champion.
Kuznetsova advanced when Zheng Jie retired at 4-1 after injuring her left wrist in a tumble in the third game, ending her hopes of a victory on the Chinese New Year.
Williams, who has won nine majors, and Kuznetsova are the only Grand Slam title winners remaining in the women’s draw.
Olympic champion Elena Dementieva extended her season winning streak to 14 matches with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova on Monday to reach the quarterfinals in Melbourne for the first time in 11 trips.
The fourth-seeded Russian next faces Carla Suarez Navarro, who ousted seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams in the second round. Suarez Navarro beat No. 21 Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-2 in an all-Spanish match.
In women’s quarterfinals starting Tuesday, 2007 Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli will be trying to follow her fourth-round upset of No.
1-ranked Jelena Jankovic with another win over No. 7 Vera Zvonareva of Russia.
No. 3 Dinara Safina meets resurgent Jelena Dokic, back representing Australia and in her first quarterfinal at Melbourne Park, in the night match.
No. 7 Andy Roddick, the only American man still in the draw, will play the first of the men’s quarterfinals against No. 3-ranked Novak Djokovic, who beat Tsonga in last year’s final.
Federer will continue his quest to equal Pete Sampras record 14 Grand Slam singles titles in a quarterfinal against No. 8 Juan Martin del Petro, a 20-year-old Argentine.
In the buildup to the Australian Open, much of the focus was on Murray and his three wins over Federer since the U.S. Open final and two tournament wins in 2009.
The focus on Verdasco was on his love match with 2008 finalist Ana Ivanovic. He’s been reluctant to discuss that, saying he’s in Australia to concentrate on tennis.
Even before he arrived in Australia, he worked on his game during the season break when he could have been celebrating his final-clinching performance in Spain’s Davis Cup triumph in Argentina.
“I think that Davis Cup final made me much stronger mentally,” Verdasco said. “And this preseason, I was working really hard. So today, I was really believing in myself, that I can win the match.” He spent time working in America with Gil Reyes in December. He even got some tips from Reyes’ top former student, Andre Agassi, a four-time winner at the Australian Open.
“Agassi came to say hi to me, and I was speaking with him,” Verdasco said. “I don’t want to say what he told me because that’s secret. But really helped me so much.”
