Tennis: Andy Murray at a loss to explain defeat

The British No 1, who received a bye in the first round of the first Masters 1000 tournament of the year, headed into his second-round clash having not lost a set in his previous two encounters with the Spaniard.

But Garcia-Lopez produced one of the best performances of his career to stun the world number four 6-4 6-2 to advance to a third-round meeting with American teenager Ryan Harrison.

“I have to go away and think about what happened,” said Murray after his shock defeat.

“I played great in practice, was hitting the ball really well. I felt pretty fresh.

“I didn’t move my best, but it didn’t feel like I was moving really badly. He hardly missed the ball the whole match. He was playing with a lot of spin.

“It almost felt like playing the match on a clay court. I wasn’t able to hit through the court and I squandered so many chances.”

Murray insists he is in good condition. “In comparison to how I felt coming in here last year, it was night and day,” he said.

“I was feeling way more focused and confident, so I’m not sure exactly why that happened tonight.”

Bookmakers immediately lengthened the odds of the Scot winning a grand slam title this year. Ladbrokes pushed out their odds to 7/4 and Murray’s odds of winning any grand slam event before 2020 have also drifted to 6/5.

Murray, who crashed out of the event at the same stage last year to American qualifier Donald Young, had numerous chances to break his opponent in the first set – notably from 0-40 – but could not capitalise.

Having kept his nerve to keep the match on serve, the first break finally arrived in game nine and went in Garcia-Lopez’s favour, the Spaniard making the Briton pay for several sloppy forehands.

Garcia-Lopez closed out the first set and Murray cut a frustrated figure at the start of the second, particularly after losing his opening service game.

Murray must have sensed a turning point when he saved four break points and held serve in game three to get back to 2-1.

But, unconcerned by failing to establish a double-break cushion, the 28-year-old from La Roda continued to play positive tennis and make Murray work hard just to stay in contention, his single-handed backhand troubling the Scot throughout.

And any hopes Murray harboured of getting back into the match were well and truly extinguished in game seven when a forehand into the net saw Garcia-Lopez break serve again to go 5-2 up.

He duly closed out the match against his shellshocked opponent, setting up a third-round meeting with Harrison following the 19-year-old American’s 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 victory over 25th-seeded Serbian Viktor Troicki.

Murray has less than 24 hours of respite at Indian Wells before he is back on court, partnering brother Jamie in an all-British men’s doubles match against Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins.

Murray’s second-round departure removes one of the bigger obstacles for Novak Djokovic, the top-ranked Serb who opened his bid for a third title in the event with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over qualifier Andrey Golubev.

Djokovic, a winner over Rafael Nadal last year in the finale at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden and also the 2008 champion, is 23-4 on the slow PlexiPave courts that he said favour his game. The Serbian star will face South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in the third round. Djokovic also beat Golubev, from Kazakhstan, in the second round last year.

Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki, the top seeds in the bottom half of the women’s draw, took easy first steps toward a possible meeting in the semi-finals.

Second-seeded Sharapova, the 2006 tournament champion, beat Gisella Dulko of Argentina, 6-2, 6-0 to kick off the night session at the Stadium Court after 2011 champion and No 4 seed Wozniacki closed the afternoon schedule with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Ekaterina Makarova of Russia. In the third round, Sharapova will play Simona Halep of Romania, and Wozniacki will face Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden in the next round.