600th doubles win for Paes, Bhupathi-Bopanna knocked out
INDIAN WELLS: Andy Murray’s makeover under the tutelage of new coach Ivan Lendl yielded a depressingly familiar result as he crashed out of his first match at Indian Wells for a second straight year while Caroline Wozniacki launched her title defence with a ruthless 6-2, 6-0 demolition of Russian Ekaterina Makarova in the second round of the Indian Wells WTA tournament on Saturday.
Fourth-seeded Murray was overwhelmed by the unseeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Saturday night, losing to the Spaniard 6-4, 6-2 in his second-round opener.
Murray was stunned in his opening match last year by unheralded American Donald Young.
Garcia-Lopez broke Murray to make it 5-2 in the second set. He then seized a 40-0 lead in final game, clinching the win on his first match point with a powerful serve that handcuffed Murray.
Scotland’s Murray was at a loss to explain the two crushingly early exits on the hard courts in the California desert. “I am going to have to go away and think about what happened,” Murray said. “He plays with a lot of spin. It felt like I was playing a match on clay court. I squandered so many chances.”
Garcia-Lopez, who is ranked 92nd in the world, saved all seven of his break point chances and won 79 percent of his first serve points.
Meanwhile, former world number one Wozniacki took advantage of an error-strewn display by her left-handed opponent, cruising to victory in just over an hour on the stadium court at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Makarova, who reached her first grand slam quarter-final at the Australian Open in January, never once held serve before the match ended when she netted a backhand.
“I felt like I played pretty good out there,” Wozniacki, of Denmark, said.
Wozniacki, who beat Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in last year’s final, will next face Swede Sofia Arvidsson, a 6-3, 6-3 winner against Romanian Monica Niculescu.
U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur of Australia also cruised into the third round, needing only 49 minutes with her attacking style to hammer American wild card Irina Falconi 6-0 6-3.
Stosur will next play Russian Nadia Petrova, who beat American wild card Lauren Davis 6-3 6-2.
India’s Leander Paes notched up the 600th doubles win of his career when he and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of the Indian Wells Masters here.
Seventh seeds Paes and Stepanek outplayed unseeded Spaniards David Ferrer and Albert Ramos 6-3 6-3 in their opening round.
However, fifth seeds Bhupathi and Bopanna, who had recently won Dubai Open, lost 4-6 3-6 to Julien Benneteau and Jo-wilfried Tsonga in their first round match.
Paes and Stepanek, the Australian Open champions, await winners of the other first round match between the pairs of Eric Butorac and Bruno Soares and Juan Monaco and Kei Nishikori.
Paes and Stepanek converted six of their eight break point opportunities for victory in 67 minutes.
The Indian, who turned pro in 1991 and will be 39 on 17 June, has a 600-311 record overall. Paes won the 2007 Indian Wells title with Martin Damm. (PTI)