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The brilliant 22 year old British lad Andy Murray crashed out of the Madrid Open after an intense match with Argentine rival Juan Martin Del Potro on Friday. Murray who currently holds the world number 3 position was up by 5-2 in the first set but in due course lost out as Martin improved his game.

In this quarter final match Murray had an extremely unsteady start and soon found himself at 15-30. Though he recovered and picked up his game through a series of good returns it still didn’t prove to be enough. A powerful cross-court backhand caught Martin completely unawares. However as the game proceeded Martin got a much-needed break as Murray lost his service game. Perhaps Murray was getting tired in his Adidas Barricade 5 tennis shoes, as the tide began to turn. Martin made the most out of this and without wasting any time upped his momentum and finally emerged on top. Defending champion Murray exited the tournament as the final scores tallied to 7-6 6-3. This defeat came as a rather unwelcoming gift on Murray’s 22nd birthday.

Murray and Martin have faced off a total of three times till now but the Argentine was never able to beat the British number one. The only clay court match between the two came at the Rome Masters in 2008 which turned into an on-court war of words after Murray asserted that the Argentine had apparently insulted his mother. Martin currently holding the world number 5 position will play the world number two Roger Federer, who beat Andy Roddick 7-5 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 to reach the semi-finals. Murray’s shaky start probably set the tone for the rest of the game but the world still waits anxiously for the next time the two warring rivals battle it out on centre court.

With the awaited match for Hamburg the match against Manchester City on 16th April has prompted rumours that Martin Jol is all set to replace Mark Huges the manager of Manchester United.

On one side the defeat from Fulham has really upset the supporters of Manchester City and their chants that Mark Hughes did not know what he was doing when they went down 3-1 in spite of the fact that they were leading by one goal in the initial stages of the match. While on the other side Hamburg had a fantastic season.

Martin Jol however denied any truth in this matter and said that he has opted for tradition over money. Praising his club and his employer he said that Manchester City is a great club and he really admired the fans. He added that he was very upset with these kinds of things as he was not even giving even the slightest thought to this aspect and he really liked his present employer. He said that he wished to stay here for a longer period.

With the match of Hamburg against Manchester city if City is not able to recover from the previous defeat Martin will get the first hand experience of the discontented city’s fans at their home ground.

Another issue that adds the pressure for Mark Hughes is the fact that in this week’s match Khaldoon Al Mubarak the chairman of the club is flying specially to watch the match. However this visit was scheduled prior to the defeat on Sunday against Fulham.