Andy Murray booed off court after his clay court season begins with a thrashing

Murray, the third seed, was broken five times in an abject display as he lost 6-2, 6-1 and disappointed spectators made their displeasure known at his tame performance by cat-calling and booing as he trudged off centre court.

The Scot, who reached the semi-finals in Monaco last year, has now lost at the first time of asking in his past two tournaments as his form has dramatically fallen away since reaching the Australian Open final in January.

"I wasn't very good today," he said. "It was the first time in a few years that the court felt so small.

"I just could not find the court. When it's like that, it's difficult to play."

The Scot's terrible first serve percentage was a godsend for Kohlschreiber, who punished his resigned opponent with forehand winners throughout.

World No 33 Kohlschreiber first broke with a delightful drop shot in the fourth game. From then on, Murray did not appear to put up much of a fight in front of former great Ilie Nastase who was watching from the stands, a pink sweater draped around his neck.

Kohlschreiber wrapped up the opening set when one of his shots hit the tape of the net and bounced above a raging Murray.

The Briton took the first game of the second set as Kohlschreiber fired a forehand long. But it was then over for Murray, who bowed out with a weak backhand into the net.

Murray had been given a wild card entry by the tournament organisers, following his late request to play, to kick off his clay-court preparations ahead of next month's French Open. But his plans were dealt an immediate blow with another early exit.

Murray added: "I tried different things. I tried serve and volleying a couple of times. I tried hitting some high balls. It did not really make a whole lot of difference."

Following hard on the heels of his straight-sets exit to Robin Soderling at the Masters tournament in Indian Wells last month, Murray will need to get his mental strength and his game back ahead of the French Open.

"The last two tournaments have been bad," Murray admitted. "It's been a long time since I lost a couple of matches like this. I have to make sure that I don't panic."

Kohlschreiber admitted that Murray had shown signs of rustiness in his first match on clay for the new season. "It is very tough for him. I was not missing much and I was playing with a lot of top spin," he added. "I knew that he doesn't like the high spin, and I think he really didn't know what to do. It was his first clay-court match so maybe it was the reason."

The 26-year-old German, who set up a last-16 clash against compatriot Philipp Petzschner, added: "It was almost a perfect match from beginning to end. I made not many mistakes and I had a lot of power in my game. I think I played really well today."

Meanwhile, the top two seeds, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, had no problems progressing through to the third round with comfortable wins.

Top seed Djokovic cruised past Florent Serra of France 6-2, 6-3 in one hour 23 minutes while Nadal, who is gunning for a sixth consecutive title in Monte Carlo, thrashed qualifier Thiemo de Bakker 6-1, 6-0. "I expected it to be a bit tougher. I played well, I played a very solid match. No mistakes," Nadal said. "This tournament is one of my favourites."

Djokovic will next play Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka, who defeated Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-1, 6-4, while Nadal faces Germany's Michael Berrer who upset 14th seed Juan Monaco 6-4, 6-4.

Ninth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain beat Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-3, 6-4 and his 11th-seeded compatriot David Ferrer defeated qualifier Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-2.

Ferrero will play France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the next round, with Ferrer due to meet eighth seed Ivan Ljubicic after the Croatian, who won the Masters event at Indian Wells last month, ousted Michael Llodra 6-3, 7-6 (7/3). Spain's Tommy Robredo, the 12th seed, was a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Serbia's Viktor Troicki, while Albert Montanes beat Andreas Seppi of Italy 7-6 (7/1), 3-6, 6-0.