Andy Murray was a hard man to rattle during his time at the top of tennis’ elite, but there were moments when opponents tried their best to throw him off his game. One of those occasions came in the Shanghai Masters in 2019, when Fabio Fognini was his opponent. Murray and Fognini faced off nine times over the course of their respective careers, with Murray beating the Italian en route to winning gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016. Three years later, it was the other man who came out on top.
The former British No.1 had chances to win in Shanghai, twice failing to serve out the match before ultimately falling to a 6-7, 6-2, 6-7 defeat. It was a bad-tempered affair, though, with Murray snapping at his opponent in a manner rarely seen. During that decisive third set, Murray told Fognini to “shut up,” and would later explain why he acted the way he did.
Someone made a noise, I didn’t know who made the noise, I looked in the direction of where the noise came from,” Murray explained after his defeat. “He then told me, ‘Stop looking at me, what are you looking at me for?’
“I was like, ‘I was just about to hit a shot and someone made a noise’. He then told me to stop looking at him. He told me to stop complaining, to have a sense of humour. I wanted to know where the sound came from, and it came from him, which you’re not allowed to do.
It’s against the rules, it’s hindrance, you shouldn’t do it. But he said I should have a sense of humour about that but in that moment neither of us were in a joking, laughing kind of mood. He [umpire Fergus Murphy] wasn’t saying anything to him. I was obviously frustrated with that.
“He wanted to engage with me, I probably shouldn’t have done, but I’m not having him talk to me like that on the court.” Murray added that he had “never had that” in his hundreds of matches on tour, while also admitting to frustrations about his own play after the defeat.
Murray had come through a three-setter against qualifier Juan Ignacio Londero before falling to Fognini. The Italian 12th seed secured a straight sets victory over Karen Khachanov in the following round but was beaten by Daniil Medvedev in the quarter-finals.
It was Medvedev who would go on to win the entire tournament. The Russian, who eliminated Cam Norrie in the second round, ended up overcoming Alexander Zverev in the final.
As for Murray, hip surgery earlier in the year had disrupted his season, but it wasn’t long after the Shanghai Masters that he secured a first title in two years with victory at the European Open. He later took part in Great Britain’s run to the semi-finals of the Davis Cup, though he wasn’t involved in the knockout round matches against Germany and Spain.
