Andy Murray has crashed out in the second round of the ATP Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, losing 6-1 7-5 to American Alex Bogomolov Jnr.
British number one broken seven times by young American
Andy Murray has crashed out in the second round of the ATP Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, losing 6-1 7-5 to American Alex Bogomolov Jnr.
It is the world number five's third successive early exit since his humiliating straight sets defeat in the final of the Australian Open earlier this year.
After going out in the second round at Indian Wells to qualifer Donald Young earlier this month, the Scot fared little better against the world number 118.
It means the 23-year-old has still not won a match since he beat David Ferrer in the semi-finals in Melbourne.
He got off to the worst possible start, some confident returning from his American opponent bringing up break point in game one, which he duly converted.
There was more of the same in game three as Bogomolov broke again, and with Murray failing to make any impression on his opponent's serve, he did at least get on the board when he held in game five to make it 4-1.
First break
But it proved to be only the briefest respite as Bogomolov held before incredibly breaking for a third time to take the set.
Murray went on the front foot and, in the first game of the second set, earned his first break point of the match, taking full advantage to shift the momentum a little.
But that did not signal the start of great things for the British number one, with the first four games of the set all going against serve.
Bogomolov broke the sequence as he held in game five, and Murray followed suit to make it 3-3.
Just as it seemed the set was settling into a more conventional pattern, Bogomolov broke again and, at 5-3, he was serving for the match.
He could not finish the task, however, and Murray broke back before levelling at 5-5.
Again Bogomolov bounced back, though, and sealed victory with his seventh break of the match.
"A lot of players would get frustrated if they were playing the way that I have the last two weeks," said Murray. "I know for sure if any of the guys ahead of me in the rankings were playing like me they would be disappointed as well.
There were no such problems for Novak Djokovic, with the new world number two continuing his brilliant start to the season by easily seeing off Denis Istomin to move into the third round.
Djokovic, a winner at Indian Wells last week, needed only 48 minutes to record a 6-0 6-1 victory and make it 19 wins from as many matches this year.
He said: "Everything was working perfectly. Most of the shots I was hitting were winners, so I wasn't making a lot of mistakes.
"I'm fresh mentally, motivated to have even more success. I'm looking to the upcoming challenges. I know it's only been a couple of months of the year, but I have been playing great, and I want to keep on doing that."
Fourth seed Robin Soderling struggled, although the Swede finally overcame Croatian Ivan Dodig 3-6 6-2 6-4 to reach the third round.
Tour leader
It was Soderling's first outing since he lost his opening match in Indian Wells where he played despite ankle and virus problems.
However, he had been in great form beforehand winning three tournaments and Friday's success means he is now leading the ATP Tour with 20 wins.
Two more seeds joined Soderling with wins, as number 14 Mardy Fish beat Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-4 6-3 and Serb 16th seed Viktor Troicki stopped Marsel Ilhan of Turkey 6-3 6-3.
Sixth seed David Ferrer eased into the third round with a 6-2 6-1 victory over Igor Kunitsyn, while Juan Martin Del Potro also progressed.
There were surprise losses for ninth seed Fernando Verdasco and 12th seed Fernando Verdasco, however, who went out to Pablo Andujar and Marcel Granollers respectively.
