3 minute read

New Wimbledon men's doubles champion Max Purcell has been brought down to earth in the Newport singles by Andy Murray while James Duckworth progressed.

Max Purcell's high-flying run has been brought crashing down by Andy Murray after a memorable few days for Wimbledon's new doubles king.

Purcell flew straight from Wimbledon, where he and Matt Ebden became the first Aussie pair to win the men's doubles for 22 years, to Newport, Rhode Island, where, thanks to a wildcard entry, he defeated French leftie Adrian Mannarino in straight sets at the Hall of Fame Open on Tuesday.

And 24 hours later, he looked as if his remarkable week might even see the world No.202 topple former world No.1 Murray too in the grasscourt tournament as he took the opening set and led 2-0 in the second.

But the Scot battled back to take command, his class showing on the surface on which he won two Wimbledon titles as he wrapped up 12 of the next 13 games to advance to the quarter-finals 4-6 6-2 6-1.

Yet it wasn't completely plain sailing for the 35-year-old Murray, who appeared to pick up an injury in the second set and was limping heavily by the end of the match, with third seed Alexander Bublik awaiting him in the quarter-finals.

But there will be Australian interest in the quarters too after James Duckworth, the No.8 seed, battled past Frenchman Quentin Halys 7-5 3-6 6-2 in a tough two-hour duel in one of Wednesday's early matches.

The injury-bedevilled Duckworth, who'd had his 10th bout of surgery in January - this time to his hip - is showing signs of recovering some of the form that took him to a career-high 46 at the start of the year.

The Sydneysider will next face either his compatriot Jason Kubler, the Brisbane battler who's fresh from his memorable career-best run through the qualifiers to the last-16 at Wimbledon, or Canadian top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who were meeting later on Wednesday.