Coric sends Murray packing

World No.1 Andy Murray has crashed out of the Madrid Open in the third round to 20-year-old Borna Coric 6-3 6-3 as his difficult start to the claycourt season continued.

The Briton, who was thrashed by the Croatian by an even wider margin in the Dubai Championships in 2015, performed poorly in the first set, losing three service games and looking increasingly frustrated.

He was on the verge of being broken in his first service game in the second set before recovering. He then earned two break points in the third game but was unable to take advantage.

“Most things weren’t working particularly well. I started the match okay, but when I started to go behind, I didn’t find any way to improve my game or to make it more difficult for him,” Murray told a news conference.

“I didn’t help myself find a way into the match to start playing better. That was disappointing because you’re not always going to play your best tennis but you can still find ways to make it difficult for your opponent and I didn’t do that today.”

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World No.59 Coric, who won his first ATP title last month in Morocco, took the second break point to serve out for the match, sending last year’s finalist and two-time Madrid winner Murray packing.

“It feels great, I don’t know how I did it but I played perfect during the game and I’m very happy about it,” Coric told Television Espanola.

“I couldn’t imagine this when I woke up this morning, I always believed but I wasn’t sure how I was going to play, but in the end I played as I had dreamed.”

World No. 2 Novak Djokovic also reached the quarterfinals on Thursday with a straight-sets victory over Feliciano Lopez.

Djokovic, who won the tournament last year, had fewer problems against the 35-year-old Spaniard than in his three-set second round test with Nicolas Almagro a day earlier, taking the first set 6-4 before breaking in the 12th game of the second to avoid a tiebreak.

Rain in the Spanish capital meant the roof on the Manolo Santana court was closed for the game, slowing down Lopez’s powerful serve to the advantage of the Serb, who recently split from his long-term coach Marian Vajda and won 6-4 7-5.

Djokovic joins David Goffin in the quarterfinals after the Belgian beat Milos Raonic 6-4 6-2. Kei Nishikori is also through to the last eight after seeing off David Ferrer of Spain 6-4 6-3.