Roger Federer backs struggling Andy Murray to regain form

Roger Federer has provided encouragement to Andy Murray as he struggles with the worst slump of his career.

The Scot crashed out at the first hurdle for a third successive tournament with defeat by Alex Bogomolov Jnr at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on Friday.

It was the world No 5's second consecutive loss to a player ranked outside the top 100 and made it nine sets lost in a row going back to his straight sets defeat by an admittedly hugely impressive Novak Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open in January.

Murray's woes continued yesterday as he and Djokovic were beaten in the doubles. They lost 5-7, 6-3, 10-0 to Sergiy Stakhovsky and Mikhail Youzhny in their last-32 clash to conclude Murray's participation in Miami.

Murray's poor run carries echoes of his form at the same stage last season but is even more worrying given the calibre of players he has been beaten by and that he seems at a loss to explain the slump after being confident he had avoided the same pitfalls.

Sixteen-time grand slam champion Federer, though, sympathised with Murray's plight and is confident he will be able to rediscover his best form.

The world No 3 said: "Andy not playing well for three tournaments is not that big a surprise for me - I struggled hugely when I was between 19 and 23, so for it to happen once in a while, I don't think it's that much of a worry. It's obviously important he picks it up before the French (Open) and Wimbledon, but he's too good a player to continue like this, so he'll be all right."

The Miami tournament signalled the end of Murray's hard-court campaign, with the ATP World Tour beginning a two-month stretch on clay building up to the French Open.

The slow surface is the Scot's least favourite and could brutally expose his current lack of confidence, and Federer admitted Murray needs to try to break his bad run as soon as possible.

The Swiss, who beat Murray in the 2008 US Open final and last year's Australian Open final, added: "You can always lose in Rotterdam, you can always lose in Indian Wells - but it's (worrying) if it becomes a bit of a trend, and now with the clay-court season looming it's obviously not a good sign for him."

Defending champion Andy Roddick also made a shock early exit from the Sony Ericsson Open at the weekend, suffering a second round loss to Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas 6-4, 7-6.

The world No 8, struggled physically and needed medical treatment during the second set, said that he was likely suffering from a lingering bronchial infection.

No 1 seed Rafael Nadal had no such problems, however, and was satisfied with his 6-4, 6-4 win over Kei Nishikori of Japan. "I'm very happy about how I played. I think I played at a high level," Nadal said.

Federer also advanced, enjoying a routine 6-3, 6-3 win over Czech Radek Stepanek.The victory took Federer alongside Pete Sampras with 762 career singles wins, equal seventh overall. Jimmy Connors tops the list with 1,241 wins.

In the women's draw, world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki progressed to the fourth round of the with a straight sets win over Daniela Hantuchova. The Dane won 6-1, 7-6 (7).

Maria Sharapova will face No 4 seed Samantha Stosur in the fourth round. The Russian had a straightforward win over wildcard Sabine Lisicki 6-2, 6-0 in under an hour.