Denis Kudla will play instead of Andy Murray in the Surbiton Challenger final on Sunday after beating the Brit 5-7 7-6(4) 6-3.
The British player has played well all week long on courts he knows very well. Murray does not live far from Surbiton and his confidence has only risen since the first match. After taking down a tricky opponent in Nakashima in the quarter-final, Murray proved once again solid but this time around the American opponent was better.
Kudla is a known grasscourt expert as the American always does well on the surface. Last year he pushed Djokovic quite a bit at Wimbledon before losing and beating him on this surface is not easy. The British player opened the match well taking an early 3-0 lead. He had a chance to make it 4-0 but Kudla was able to keep himself in the match eventually pulling back the break.
Murray still proved solid and took the first 7-5. The first set was close but Murray served much better and it proved key towards the end. The 2nd set was another close one but this time around both players served well and there were little to no chances for either. At 5-5, we were yet to see a break point in the set as both only dropped 3 points after hitting their first serve.
Kudla actually outplayed Murray in the tiebreak taking it 7-4 playing very bold and attacking tennis. He outplayed Murray once more in the final set simply palying better overall. Murray got frustrated and he lost focus quite a bit in the final set allowing Kudla to take it 6-3.
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