Tennis: I was poor, admits Andy Murray

And the Scot, Britain's tennis No.1 admitted he'd let his opponent dictate the play in his 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) defeat to Soderling, which took an hour and 34 minutes.

"I think he played very well to start with, and I didn't," said Murray.

"I didn't move particularly well. I was hitting the ball really short, and he's obviously got a big game and he was able to dictate all of the points.

"So from my side it was poor, but he hit the ball really big from the back of the court and served well when he needed to."

The win took Soderling into the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open.

Fourth seed Murray never got going against the player seeded two places below him and two costly breaks in the opening set put Soderling firmly in the driving seat.

The Scot rallied briefly in the second set to force a tie-breaker but Soderling had enough in the tank to close out the match.

Soderling will now face Andy Roddick in the semi-finals.

Murray threatened to steal on early march in the first game but Soderling closed it out after saving four break points.

Soderling then threatened to break the Scot, who saved himself at the first time of asking before succumbing soon after to go 2-0 down with the Swede holding to extend his advantage.

Murray's nightmare start looked continued as Soderling secured another break point and capitalised.

The fifth game saw a little more fight from the Briton but again it went the way of the Swede, whose serve was proving to be telling.

Murray saved break point before taking his first game in the sixth, but a straightforward set was clinched by Soderling in the next.

Murray showed some ruthlessness to take the first game of the second with the set going with serve in the next.

The third, however, saw Soderling seize a break point opportunity and then hold his serve to go 3-1 up.

Murray held serve then secured break point at 40-0 but let the chance slip away, Soderling roaring back and finishing with an ace to make it 4-2. Yet another sublime Soderling return left Murray rooted to the spot and set up a break point. The opportunity slipped through his fingers however as Murray clawed his way back to take the game.

Soderling held in the next to move to within a game of victory, and Murray was forced to stave off match point in the next before holding.

Murray slipped 0-30 down in the next as Soderling looked poised to hold for the win, but Murray roared back with four points in a row, sealing the break with a superb backhand winner off Soderling's weak overhead smash.

Both players held to force the tie-breaker, which went the way of Soderling when Murray fired tamely in the net on the Swede's fourth match point.