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Andy Murray has yet to decide whether to play the French Open in 2023, admitting his showdown with Fabio Fognini in the first round of the Italian Open was «too fixed».
On Wednesday evening, the Scotsman lost the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome to Fognini in a three-hour battle.
Murray failed to win any of the three clay-court Masters 1000 events last month, but won his first title since 2019 at the second ATP Challenger Tour event in Aix-en-Provence in southern France on Sunday.
Murray, who turns 36 this week, has played just once at Roland Garros since 2017 and must now decide to compete on Paris clay for the last time – which could result in him receiving a wild card to play in the Challenger BNP Paribas Primrose. – or start the preparations early for the grass-court season.
He told The Guardian: “I still want to play but we agreed that after Rome we will talk as a team and make a decision.
“That’s what I wanted to see how my game felt, how I played and how I was going to perform physically in some long matches before I made a certain call. We will have those discussions over the next few days.
Fogna died in style! 🇮🇹😎#IBI23 pic.twitter.com/Y14GoBNgKX
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 10, 2023
Murray and Fognini have been enemies since their childhood and it was the Italian who emerged victorious 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 after a hard-fought battle.
«It was a beautiful match,» said the three-time Grand Slam winner. There was some good stuff in there but also some pretty average stuff. He played very well in the third set. My rating was okay on the third, but he played really well on the third.
The result was a loss to Murray’s Wimbledon seeding hopes, but he was also in contention with him. Chair Judge Mohammad Lahyani With a line call late in the first set.
Responding to Murray, who posted about the incident on Instagram, he had this to say about the Roma fans: «A stadium full of Italians screaming and whistling, trying to fool Fabio because Mo couldn’t read the sign correctly. Cheer up buddy.
Read more: Andy Murray answers questions about the titles his kids would like Messi or Ronaldo to win
