Murray ‘far from his best’ after shock Madrid exit

World no 1’s struggles continue with third round defeat against Borna Coric

Andy Murray conceded lots of parts of his game “weren’t particularly good” after his latest early exit in Madrid.

If 2016 was one of the best of the world number one’s career, 2017 is proving to be the opposite.

Injury has bothered him and form deserted him across the first four and a half months of the year and there was little to smile about as Borna Coric dumped him out of the Mutua Madrid Open.

Coric, 59th in the world, won 6-3 6-3 as the Scot’s desperate pursuit of consistency went on.

“There were a lot of things that weren’t particularly good,” Murray told BBC Sport.

“I made a lot of unforced errors and I also didn’t find any way to make it a more competitive match, so that’s the most disappointing thing.

“Things can change fast but you need to find exactly what it is that is going wrong and how you’re going to fix that and commit to it. And if I do that, I’m sure I can turn it round.”

Murray’s form is in stark contrast to this point last year when, then the perennial number two in the rankings behind Novak Djokovic, he embarked on a phenomenal seven-month run to propel himself to the top of the rankings pile.

He could now have to repeat something like that eye-watering effort to stay there but it is clear he is still finding his way after his elbow injury.

Cutting out the unforced errors will help. The signs were there early on in the match, particularly on the forehand side, that perhaps Coric could cause Murray some problems and he drew first blood with a break of serve to lead 2-3 in the opening set.

Murray broke straight back only for the two-time Madrid winner to then lose his serve once more to fall 3-4 behind, with his opponent going on to win a scrappy opening set.

Murray was in trouble during his first service game of the second set after two more unforced errors helped earn Coric another break point for a 2-0 lead.

Murray’s frustration boiled over in the eighth game of the second set as he lashed a backhand well wide to go 0-40 down on his own serve. Coric then came out on top in a long rally to break Murray and give himself the opportunity to serve for the match.

Elsewhere, Djokovic booked his place in the quarter-finals with a 6-4 7-5 win over Feliciano Lopez, while Rafael Nadal beat Nick Kyrgios 6-3 6-1.

There were wins for David Goffin, who beat Milos Raonic 6-4 6-2 and Kei Nishikori, who saw off David Ferrer 6-4 6-3. Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem are also safely through to the last eight.

Pictures: Getty. A despondent Andy Murray, top, after his defeat against world no 59 Borna Coric.