Andy Murray vs. Grigor Dimitrov: Score, Reaction from 2016 Miami Open

Grigor Dimitrov picked up by far his biggest win of the 2016 season, defeating second-seeded Andy Murray 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-3 in the third round of the 2016 Miami Open on Monday in Key Biscayne, Florida.

It's Dimitrov's third victory over Murray in nine tries and his first since Wimbledon 2014. This is Murray's second third-round exit in as many tournaments following his loss to Federico Delbonis at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California.

Little separated the two in the first set until the tiebreaker. The numbers, per TennisTV, illustrated how slim the margins were:

In the tiebreak, though, Dimitrov looked caught between two mindsets of how to attack his opponent and lost his aggression. Murray used that indecision to his advantage and dictated the flow of the extra frame from start to finish, eventually winning 7-1 and taking the first set.  

Dimitrov didn't dwell too much on his bad luck during the changeover. The 24-year-old Bulgarian won the first four games of the second set to grab a commanding lead. Suddenly, Murray was the one melting down, and he took his frustration out on his racket, slamming it down multiple times into his bag. That earned an admonishment from the chair umpire, per tennis journalist Chris Goldsmith:

Murray and the umpire engaged back and forth throughout the entire match, per Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times:

Murray clawed his way back into the set and had a break-point opportunity down 4-5, but Dimitrov held and evened the match. He was a bit understated in his celebrations following set point, via the tournament's official Twitter account:

The third set was a great example of how less can be more at times. Dimitrov opted for a more patient approach from the baseline rather than going at Murray on every point. When he had an opening, he went in for the kill. For the most part, though, Dimitrov was content to simply extend rallies.

As a result, Murray essentially dug his own grave with numerous unforced errors on what were otherwise easy groundstrokes. According to BBC Sport's Piers Newbery, Murray finished with 54 unforced errors for the entire match.

He has a history of losing his nerve when things aren't going right, and switching coaches from Ivan Lendl to Amelie Mauresmo didn't root out the issue completely. It would be inaccurate to call Murray's third-set performance an implosion. At the same time, he grew more and more frustrated the longer the set went on, and the mistakes piled up.

This is the kind of result Murray's critics will point to when they question whether he can ever truly challenge Novak Djokovic, whom he's beaten once in their last 12 meetings. Murray is unquestionably one of the most talented tennis players in the world. However, his inability to fight through adversity and any sluggishness remains a problem, at least for a star of his caliber.

Ascribing too much importance to this match for Dimitrov would be hasty. With that said, this is exactly the kind of win he needs to break through what has been a glass ceiling. Tennis commentator David Law noted how Dimitrov routinely struggles against the best talent on the ATP World Tour:

Of course, a defeat to either Gael Monfils or Pablo Cuevas in the fourth round would dampen some of that optimism.

Djokovic was arguably the biggest winner from Monday's match. With Murray out, the tournament is now without its No. 2 seed, No. 4 seed (Stan Wawrinka) and No. 5 seed (Rafael Nadal) on the men's side. Third-seeded Roger Federer withdrew before the start of the tournament too.

Djokovic shouldn't need much help reaching the final of the Miami Open, but his road is getting easier and easier.

Post-Match Reaction

Following Monday's defeat, Murray discussed how he experienced a couple of hurdles on the way to the BNP Paribas Open, which allowed him to downplay the significance of his early exit at Indian Wells. He made no such excuse for the Miami Open, per Press Association Sport (via ESPN.com):

"

I expected Indian Wells to be tricky coming off the Davis Cup and a big change in conditions, but here I had a long time to prepare. I practiced pretty well. So Indian Wells maybe understandable. Here, not so much. Grigor is obviously a very good player, but I also had opportunities in this match. I was up a break in the third, same at Indian Wells, then lost a run of games in both matches. So need to look at that and see where I go from there.

"

Murray added that "a lot of unforced errors crept into [his] game," per BBC Sport.

During his on-court interview with Sky Sports (via Andy Charles of Sky Sports), Dimitrov discussed how he wanted to maintain an even keel mentally against his opponent.

"Coming into the third set I knew Andy is going to run down every shot and he was up a break," he said. "That didn't discourage me but I felt I was striking the ball back and I thought I would get a chance and I saw that opportunity and I was on top of my game when it came."