Murray surrenders title tamely

Tennis: An out-of-sorts Andy Murray failed to put up much resistance in the defence of his Valencia Open title when he lost …

Tennis:An out-of-sorts Andy Murray failed to put up much resistance in the defence of his Valencia Open title when he lost 6-2 3-6 6-2 to Argentine Juan Monaco in the second round today.

The top seed and world number four briefly rallied in the second set but was broken early in the third and slumped to defeat against a player he beat in the semi-finals in Shanghai two weeks ago.

Murray went on to beat Roger Federer in the final of the Shanghai Masters but took two weeks out to rest and attend his brother Jamie's wedding before arriving in Spain. He admitted he was not at his best in physical terms.

"Juan played very well. I know he has been injured for a while but today he proved that he is a great player. He played a very consistent game," Murray said. "He doesn't usually make many mistakes and it's easy to lose against him if you are not on top of your game."

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Murray had opened the defence of his title with a 6-3 7-6 victory over Spain's Feliciano Lopez yesterday. The Scot has already qualified for the season-ending ATP finals in London this month along with Rafael Nadal, Federer, Novak Djokovic and Robin Soderling.