Andy Murray suffered a surprise early exit from the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells at the hands of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Repeat of last year's early exit for Brit
Andy Murray's bid to claim the first ATP Masters title of the year lasted just two sets as he crashed out 6-4 6-2 to world number 92 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in Indian Wells.
The British number one, who received a bye in the first round, had not lost a set in his previous two encounters with the Spaniard.
And he came into the match on the back of an encouraging performance in Dubai, where he beat world number one Novak Djokovic on a run to the final.
But Garcia-Lopez produced one of the best performances of his career to stun the world number four 6-4 6-2 to advance to a third-round meeting with American teenager Ryan Harrison.
Murray, who also lost at the same stage last year to American qualifier Donald Young, had numerous chances to break his opponent in the first set - notably from 0-40 - but could not capitalise.
Having kept his nerve to keep the match on serve, the first break finally arrived in game nine and went in Garcia-Lopez's favour, the Spaniard making the Briton pay for several sloppy forehands.
Garcia-Lopez closed out the first set and Murray cut a frustrated figure at the start of the second, particularly after losing his opening service game.
Murray must have sensed a turning point when he saved four break points and held serve in game three to get back to 2-1.
But, unconcerned by failing to establish a double-break cushion, the 28-year-old from La Roda continued to play positive tennis and make Murray work hard just to stay in contention, his single-handed backhand troubling the Scot throughout.
And any hopes Murray harboured of getting back into the match were well and truly extinguished in game seven when a forehand into the net saw Garcia-Lopez break serve again to go 5-2 up.
He duly closed out the match against his shellshocked opponent, setting up a third-round meeting with Harrison following the 19-year-old American's 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 victory over 25th-seeded Serbian Viktor Troicki.
Baffled
Murray admitted he was baffled by his performance. "I have to go away and think about what happened," he said. "I played great in practice, was hitting the ball really well. I felt pretty fresh.
"I didn't move my best tonight, but it didn't feel like I was moving really badly. He hardly missed the ball the whole match. He was playing with a lot of spin, and he plays his best tennis on clay courts.
"It almost felt like playing the match on a clay court. I wasn't able to hit through the court and I squandered so many chances. I had (Garcia-Lopez) 0-40 (on serve) two or three times, 0-30 a number of times, and I didn't break."
In contrast, Djokovic eased into the third round with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Kazakhstan qualifier Andrey Golubev, breaking his opponent's serve twice in each set to win in just an hour and 20 minutes.
"It was a good start," the top-seeded Serb said after sealing the win with a powerful first serve that forced a wild backhand error by his 145th-ranked opponent.
"We didn't play a beautiful match and there were a lot of unforced errors but look, it's the opening match of the tournament for me and I am still getting used to the conditions and adjusting to the court.
Djokovic, who beat Rafa Nadal in last year's final, will next face South African Kevin Anderson, who benefited from a walkover when Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew due to illness..
