Story highlights
Fourth seed Andy Murray beaten in his opening match in Indian Wells event
Briton Murray suffers a 6-4 6-2 reverse to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain
Defending champions Novak Djokovic and Caroline Wozniacki both go through
Fourth seed Andy Murray has crashed out of the prestigious Indian Wells tournament in California, beaten in straight sets by Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in his opening match.
The British number one lost to American Donald Young at the same stage last year – and history repeated itself on Saturday when world number 92 Garcia-Lopez cruised to a 6-4 6-2 success.
“My return let me down and he hardly missed the ball either,” Murray told the official ATP Tour website.
“The level of tennis nowadays you get no easy first round matches and, if you play a poor match, that’s what happens.
“I don’t know exactly why because I was playing really, really good tennis the whole of the week and the buildup to it,” added Murray, who made 34 unforced errors and had his serve broken three times in a one hour, 40 minute defeat.
A delighted Garcia-Lopez said: “It’s one of the biggest wins in my career and it gives me a lot of confidence, as my ranking right now is not too good.
“This victory gives me some confidence that I can do much better this season,” he continued.
There were no such problems for world number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic, who beat Kazakh qualifier Andrey Golubev 6-3 6-2, the same player he defeated in his opening match in last year’s tournament.
The Serb told reporters: “There were a lot of unforced errors but it was the opening match and I am still trying to adjust to this court and get used to the conditions.”
There were also wins for seventh seed Tomas Berdych and eighth seed Mardy Fish, but amongst those to also go out were Richard Gasquet, Kei Nishikori and Florian Mayer – seeded 16th, 17th and 18th respectively.
All the top names in the women’s draw moved through into the next round, with holder Caroline Wozniacki particularly impressive in trouncing Ekaterina Makarova on Russia 6-2 6-0.
The fourth-seeded Dane was joined in the next round by second seed Maria Sharapova and sixth seed Samantha Stosur, who also enjoyed straight sets wins.
The biggest surprise in the women’s section saw 11th seed Sabine Lisicki go down 6-1 6-4 to Lourdes Dominguez of Spain.
