Andy Murray's makeover under the tutelage of new coach Ivan Lendl yielded a depressingly familiar result as he crashed out of his first match at Indian Wells for a second straight year.
Fourth-seeded Murray was overwhelmed by the unseeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, losing to the Spaniard 6-4, 6-2 in his second-round opener.
Murray was stunned in his opening match last year by unheralded American Donald Young.
The Scot was at a loss to explain the two crushingly early exits on the hardcourts in the California desert.
"I am going to have to go away and think about what happened," Murray said.
"He plays with a lot of spin. It felt like I was playing a match on clay court. I squandered so many chances."
Murray had four aces, but he made 34 unforced errors and hit just 17 winners in the one hour, 40 minute match.
Garcia-Lopez, who is ranked 92nd in the world, saved all seven of his break point chances and won 79 percent of his first serve points.
Garcia-Lopez advances to the third round where he will play American Ryan Harrison, a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 winner over Viktor Troicki.
Earlier in the week, Murray repeatedly said he felt good about his game.
He was fresh off a strong performance in Dubai where he beat world number one Novak Djokovic in the semis before losing to Roger Federer in the final.
To make matters worse for Murray he had two routine wins over Garcia-Lopez in their previous two meetings, including a 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 thrashing at the 2011 Aussie Open.
"I am not sure what happened tonight," Murray said.
"I was coming back to the locker room and you are thinking. 'Why did it happen?' Last year it was a lot easier for me to look at it and know why."
Murray was trying build on a successful 2011 season where he won five times and reached the final of the Australian Open and made the semis at the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
His first major move of 2012 was hiring eight-time grand slam champion Lendl as his coach.
"I felt fresh," Murray said.
"It wasn't like I was moving badly," he said.
"There is obviously a reason behind why I didn't play well. I'll find that reason and address it."
AFP
Tags: tennis, sport, united-states, scotland, united-kingdom First posted March 11, 2012 20:00:18
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