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Ernests Gulbis returns to taunt Andy Murray with shock win

Latvian quickly ends Scot's 13-match winning streak. No hint of knee trouble as Nadal reaches the quarters.

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Andy Murray appears to have discovered a nemesis in Ernests Gulbis. The mercurial Latvian, who recently labelled him "boring" along with the other top four in men's tennis, took another memorable swipe on Thursday with a straight-sets victory to dispatch him from the Rogers Cup and bring the Wimbledon champion's remarkable 13-match winning streak to an end.

While Murray will work tirelessly at remedying the flaws in time for his US Open title defence later this month, this was still a horribly listless display, quite at odds with the glorious memories he has bequeathed this summer. He never came to terms with Gulbis' audacious returning game and succumbed all too tamely, losing 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 28 minutes, as his opponent from Riga completed the task with an ace down the middle.

As a double grand slam champion, Murray would be wary of peaking too early for New York, and still has next week's Masters tournament in Cincinnati to make the necessary corrections. But there were plenty of suggestions of a Wimbledon hangover in this limp performance as he seeks to adjust to the faster hardcourts, ready for being announced at Flushing Meadows as the defending champion. Murray had not lost a match since a back problem forced him to withdraw in Rome three months ago but, after barrelling through Queen's and Wimbledon like a freight train, he veered alarmingly off the tracks here. Gulbis simply took his serve apart and, in the 81-degree Canadian heat he grew lethargic and was even warned by umpire Carlos Bernandez for a time violation.

He at least declared his intent early with a love service game, firing down an ace before fashioning an elegant drop shot to leave Gulbis marooned. But as casual errors began to creep into his play, not least when he double-faulted in the fourth game to fall 0-30 behind, the look from Ivan Lendl in the first row of the stands could have turned his protege to stone at 10 paces.

Slowly he rallied, winning several punishing exchanges with his characteristic scampering behind the baseline. But Gulbis would not be cowed easily, ripping return winners and twice outsmarting Murray with lobs that landed clean on the baseline. The world No?38 can still be a curious combination of the inspired and insipid - as illustrated at 3-3 when he deposited a mid-court smash into the net to offer up two break points, which Murray squandered.

The contest was acquiring a rancorous edge, too. When Gulbis stretched for a half-volley Murray drop shot at the net and flicked it over the Scot's head, only for the ball to be called "not up" by the umpire for a double bounce. Plainly irked, Gulbis approached the chair to remonstrate before sullenly retreating. But he would still wrap up the opening set with aplomb, clambering all over a weak Murray second serve with a vicious return.

It seldom grew much better from Murray from there. The time violation came in the third game of the second set and Gulbis broke in the fourth, forcing Murray, a two-time winner in Montreal, to go for too much with a lunging forehand volley. Not 15 minutes later, it was all over as Gulbis held decisively to the scantest of resistance.

There were rather more auspicious signs yesterday for Rafael Nadal, who gave further evidence of his remarkable recovery from knee injury with a captivating 7-6, 6-4 victory over Jerzy Janowicz victory to advance to the quarter-finals of the Rogers Cup in Montreal, thwarting the powerful Pole with a succession of improbable ripostes.

Janowicz might have proved at Wimbledon that he was one of the most lethal servers on tour, routinely reaching 140?mph, but Nadal matched him ace for ace at the to win his 10th match in his last 11.

Nadal was extended to the very limit of his prodigious powers by Janowicz, who at last broke him in the 11th game to move ahead 6-5. But he responded immediately, breaking his younger adversary straight back to set up one of the most pulsating finishes to a tie-break. No sooner had Janowicz surged in front 5-2 than Nadal staged another comeback for a 7-6 lead, ready for perhaps the flourish of the tournament.

Both men came to the net, trading ricochet powers, before Nadal somehow contrived a backhand smash that landed between Janowicz's feet. Cue a typically extravagant fist-pump as the Canadian crowd hollered its approval.

Janowicz staged one final fightback of his own to build a 3-0 advantage in the second set, before Nadal drew back to 4-4 and eventually finished him off with a decisive ace.

 

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