Andy Murray is out of the Miami Open after suffering a shock straight sets first-round defeat

Andy Murray suffered his most disappointing result of the season at the place he almost calls a second home when he was upset in the first round of the Miami Open.

The 35 year-old Scot, who has put in plenty of encouraging performances this season, went down 6-4, 7-5 to Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic, a baseliner whose natural habitat is more the clay.

The setback was all the more surprising as Murray has good memories of this part of Florida, and has often based himself here for warm weather training.

He also had his mentor Ivan Lendl watching in the stands, but he was nowhere near the player who pulled off a couple of heroic victories in Australia and followed them up by making the final of the Qatar Open.

The languid Lajovic works hard from the back of the court and moves well but lacks weapons, hence his ranking of 76. 

Nevertheless he got a break in the first set thanks to too many errors from the double Wimbledon champion.

Murray smashed his racket into the ground when his struggles continued late into the second set. 

Lajovic broke him for 5-4 and then made a mess of serving it out. He then broke again and although nervous just about it closed it out at the second time of asking, depriving Murray of the deciding set he often specialises in.

Murray was later perplexed that he had not played better. ‘I served pretty well but the rest of my game was a problem,’ he said.

‘I didn’t move that well like I have been doing this season. The main court here is quite different, it’s significantly faster and the balls bounce quite high and I mistimed and shanked a few. I’m not quite sure why I struggled. I wasn’t expecting to play like that. I was hoping to do much better here.’

Kyle Edmund made it a trio of GB defeats when he fell 7-5, 7-5 to the fast-improving Chinese number one Yibing Wu. 

This was less of a surprise as Edmund has not played since the Australian Open as he tries to come back from persistent knee problems. He is currently ranked 544 and entered via an injury protected ranking.

Earlier in the day, Emma Raducanu took her tough match against Canadian Bianca Andreescu the distance, but ultimately fell 3-6, 6-3, 2-6 on Stadium 1.