It was the first-ever meeting between Murray, a two-time Grand Slam victor and holder of 35 career titles, and Delbonis, ranked 53rd in the world with just one career title.
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Delbonis, who progressed to the third round, raced into the ascendency with an early break before holding his nerve to win the first set.
Murray had never faced Delbonis before and was troubled early on before settling, only to give up a 4-1 advantage in the deciding set. It earned Murray a break in the fourth game and, with two hours on the clock, he confidently held for 4-1 with a signature backhand cross-court victor.
As well as dominating from the baseline, Delbonis’ best career win came on the back of some superb defensive play which denied Murray cheap points.
“I don’t know exactly why it is”, Murray said of his losses at Indian Wells. After a first set where the World No. 53 makes the decisive break on 5-4, in the second set Murray keeps not enchanting and, instead of reacting, is always down in the score.
“I have never really felt that I played my best tennis here”, he said.
“I think with the return it worked”, Murray said. “For that tournament, for that surface, for me [it] is the best win”.
Murray led 3-2 in the breaker before Delbonis reeled off five straight points to close out the match, using his heavy topspin to change up the pace.
How do Murray lose from 4-1 up in the final set? .
Umpire Carlos Bernades got an earful when Delbonis took his time to call for a Hawk-Eye challenge.
However to go from 4-1 up in the decider to losing the tie-break was disappointing, as Murray’s serve deserted him, and even allowing for the blustery conditions at times lifting the ball and putting some wicked shimmies to shots, Murray played a poor tie-break, by his own admission to hand Delbonis one of the best wins of his career.
“I didn’t play a great tiebreak”.
Also advancing were on Monday were third seed Stan Wawrinka, a 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) victor over Andrey Kuznetsov; eighth seed Richard Gasquet, a 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 victor over Alexandr Dolgopolov; and 10th seed Marin Cilic, who beat Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 6-3.
Konta made light work of her opponent, who had previously eliminated Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber, and is now due to meet Karolina Pliskova in the fourth round.
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He will go on to face either Gael Monfils or Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the last 16. No. 12 seed Milos Raonic moved on when 17th-seeded Bernard Tomic retired trailing 6-2, 3-0 because of a wrist injury. Djokovic defeated Murray in last year’s final, so the latter will be keen on revenge after being bested by Djoker in the Australian Open and losing at Indian Wells.
