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Murray crashes out in Rotterdam first round

By Pti

Rotterdam (Netherlands), Feb 10 (AFP) Andy Murray wonthree games in 12 minutes before a slow fade Wednesday at theATP Rotterdam Open which left the Australian Open finalist afirst-round loser to Marcos Baghdatis.

The Cypriot turned the tables in dramatic fashion for a6-4, 6-1 upset of the second seed who is still nursing woundsfrom his second consecutive title-match defeat in Melbourne.

Murray also admitted that he felt some pain in his leftwrist, during the 61-minute disappointment but said he did notthink it was a serious matter.

"I need to think about what I need to do to be playing mybest tennis by Indian Wells and Miami in March. I started welland then began missing a lot. You need to be very sharp inyour movement on this surface."

The world number five will hope to play doubles with hisbrother Jamie at the tournament which he won in 2009.

Baghdatis, the 2006 Australian Open runner-up, has nowbeaten Murray on three of four occasions.

"I always try to fight and find a solution to win, Andyplayed good at the start, I had to break the rhythm, he beganmaking mistakes and lost concentration," said Baghdatis.

"I finished it off and I''m very happy. He could be tiredfrom Melbourne, when I played the final in Australia, I was inbed for a week, it''s tough to come back. I took my chancestoday, bad luck for him."

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won an all-French match to book intothe quarter-final places as he defeated compatriot MichaelLlodra 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Llodra, the 2008 champion, has now lost all three of hismatches with 2008 Australian Open finalist Tsonga.

The French winner, who has put together back-to-back winsfor the first time in a month, will next play eitherfourth-seeded Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych or Russianqualifier Dmitry Tursunov.

"It was a tough match," said Tsonga, working to lift aranking which has sunk to 18th after falling from the Top tendue to inactivity due to injury in the second half of 2010.

"Mika is one of the best players on this (indoor)surface. I started well but he played better than me in thefirst set. I was happy to get the win, it was prettydifficult.

"My two previous wins gave me the confidence going in,but I also played well. In the quarter-finals, I can just playmy game. I''ve been getting better with each match this year."

Tsonga is recovering from a bizarre end to his AustralianOpen campaign, squandering a two-sets-to-one lead againstAlexandr Dolgopolov and collapsing in the last two setsagainst the young Ukrainian in the third round.

Two more Frenchman squared off at the Ahoy complex, withBenoit Paire putting out Gilles Simon 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in justover 90 minutes. Spain''s Feliciano Lopez beat German FlorianMayer 6-3, 6-4.

Croatian Marin Cilic beat fifth seed Jurgen Melzer 6-2,6-4 in the second round. (AFP) AT

Story first published: Thursday, February 10, 2011, 10:45 [IST]
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