MELBOURNE: World number one Andy Murray suffered a huge upset to 50th-ranked Mischa Zverev to follow Novak Djokovic to the exit as the shocks kept rolling at the Australian Open on Sunday.
Murray was never expected to be troubled by the 29-year-old German, who has never won an ATP title, but he lost 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in his earliest Melbourne departure in eight years.
Zverev’s serve-volley triumph blows the draw even wider open with the top two seeds out before the quarter-finals for the first time in a Grand Slam since the 2004 French Open.
Among the beneficiaries could be Roger Federer, who plays Kei Nishikori later, and Rafael Nadal, who downed Zverev’s younger brother Alexander in a titanic five-setter on Saturday.
Alexander, 19, was watching courtside as Zverev stretched to a series of elastic volleys to halt the nonplussed Murray. Nearly half of Zverev’s points were from serve and volleys.
