Andy Murray will not play in the final of the ATP Challenger event in Surbiton on Sunday after he lost to an inspired Denis Kudla.
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 his first match at the ATP Challenger event.
As the top seed, he started against Jurij Rodionov, and he bested Gijs Brouwer in the second round of the tournament. Even the fifth-seeded Brandon Nakashima couldn't stop him in the quarter-final, so Murray secured a semi-final meeting with Denis Kudla.
Kudla is a known grass-court expert as the American always does well on the green low-bouncing surface. Last year, he pushed Novak Djokovic quite a bit at Wimbledon before losing in three sets, 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 set, eventually pulling back the break in the first set.
Murray still proved too solid in the opening set of the match, winning it 7-5. The first set was close, but Murray served much better, which proved key towards the end.
The second set was another close one, but this time around, both players served well, and there were little to no chances for either. There were no break points on offer during the second set, so a tie-break had to decide.
Kudla actually outplayed Murray in the tie-break, winning it 7-4 thanks to playing very bold and attacking tennis. That meant the third set had to decide this semi-final match.
Kudla outplayed Murray once more in the final set, simply playing better overall. Kudla was ultimately the better player, winning the match 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-3 to eliminate one of the best grass-court players of all time from the ATP Challenger event in Surbiton.