Andy Murray prefers practice over competition in Barcelona

ANDY Murray will not seek a wild card for next week's Barcelona Open but will instead head to Catalonia for a week of intensive practice.

The world No4 is seeking to reverse a slump that has taken hold since his Australian Open final defeat by Roger Federer in January.

His thrashing by Philipp Kohlschreiber in Monte Carlo on Wednesday meant three successive losses for Murray for the first time in nearly four years.

The 22-year-old's lack of matches led to speculation he could choose to play in Barcelona, but he will stick to his plan to continue his build-up to the French Open at the Masters events in Rome and Madrid.

Murray trained in Barcelona as a teenager and he will spend a week on the clay courts with coaches Miles Maclagan and Alex Corretja, a two-time French Open runner-up, ahead of the start of the Rome tournament on 25 April.

The Scot's poor performance in Monte Carlo this year after reaching the semi-finals 12 months ago means he will drop outside the world's top four on Monday.

Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro will overtake Murray despite not having played since the Australian Open because of a wrist problem.

Del Potro will also be unable to compete in Barcelona because of the injury, while world number six Nikolay Davydenko is struggling with a similar problem.

Meanwhile, Juan Carlos Ferrero had high hopes of advancing into the semi-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters, but instead smacked into an impenetrable brick wall named Rafael Nadal yesterday.

Nadal's shock fourth round defeat at last year's French Open was obliterated as the clay court master, four times a winner at Roland Garros, powered past his fellow Spaniard 6-4, 6-2. Elsewhere in the draw, top seed Novak Djokovic was an impressive 6-2, 6-3 winner over Argentine David Nalbandian.