Andy Murray knocked out of Rennes Challenger in second round

2021 hasn't been kind to the British Tennis player Andy Murray. He is going through some tough times on the court and nothing changed in the Rennes Challenger, the second-tier tournament. His bid to find some late season momentum ended in the second round on Thursday.

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The dip in form has taken the ex-world number one Tennis player to 116th rank and Murray lost to the 158th ranked Roman Safiullin of Russia, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. The 34-year-old though didn't go down without a fight saving three match points but eventually succumbed to defeat.

It seemed as if he had regained his form after Murray had defeated Germany's Yannick Maden in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of the Rennes Challenger.

Andy Murray didn't go beyond the first round in the US Open too losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas in a fiery five-set game on the Arthur Ashe Court in New York. Earlier this week, Andy Murray had stated that his goal at the moment is to improve his ranking and in the process, regain his lost touch as well.

He is confident of competing at the highest level still but admitted that it will be tough if he keeps facing top players right at the start of the tournaments. "One of the goals between now and end of the year is to try and make a big improvement with my ranking and to do that, I need to be competing often.

"I still feel like I can play a very high level but if all of the time when I go to the big tournaments, I play top players right at the beginning of the event, it's not so easy," Murray had said according to the Times of India.