Murray slumps to defeat on return

Murray played in Rotterdam having initially suggested he wanted a breakAndy Murray lost to Marcos Baghdatis at the World Tennis Tournament in his first game since losing to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final.

Less than two weeks since his third Grand Slam final loss, world number five Murray was blown away 6-4 6-1 by the Cypriot in just over an hour.

The second-seeded Scot led 3-0 with two service breaks but went into free-fall.

Baghdatis broke Murray three times to win the first set and never looked back as he wrapped up a comfortable victory.

The world number 20 will next play Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in the second round in Rotterdam after seeing off Florian Mayer.

Murray may have been making his first indoor appearance for three months, but it was, more significantly, a chance to begin the process of easing the pain of a straight-sets defeat by Serbia's Djokovic in Melbourne on 30 January.

The 23-year-old had intimated he would take a lengthy sabbatical and instead opted to compete in the Netherlands in a tournament he won two years ago.

Despite his lack of preparation, Murray began his first-round encounter against the unseeded but lively Baghdatis in sparkling fashion.

Highlights - Djokovic ends Murray's slam dream in Australian Open final

Two breaks of serve had Murray cruising at 3-0, and although the Cypriot, runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open, fought back with a break of his own, Britain's number one still looked favourite after steadying the ship at 4-2.

But then the wheels fell off as the 25-year-old secured the first set in 39 minutes with four games on the bounce.

The first three games of the second set went with serve, only for Baghdatis, who beat Murray at Wimbledon in 2006, to turn on the style and swiftly come through to seal his second-round spot with the minimum of fuss.

It is not the end of Murray's participation in Rotterdam this week as he and brother Jamie will be involved in the doubles after they were handed a wildcard having initially been overlooked.

Djokovic was ruled out of the World Tennis Tournament because of a shoulder injury and is still needing another week's rest before playing again.

The new Australian Open champion was replaced as top seed by Swede Robin Soderling, who began his defence of the Dutch title with an easy win in less than hour over local favourite Robin Haase.

Two second round results on Wednesday included a defeat for fifth-ranked Jurgen Melzer by unseeded Croat Marin Cilic, while Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to work hard to beat France's Michael Llodra 4-6 6-4 6-2.

Victory for the eighth seeded Tsonga, who lost the 2008 Australian Open final to Djokovic, came a day after he declared the era of domination by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal over.

"Federer and Nadal are not alone at the top of the rankings any more," said Tsonga. "Maybe on clay, Nadal's victories are still the same, but not on other surfaces.

"Djokovic and Murray are beating Nadal and Federer very often, all the players are improving their games. It's not just about Nadal and Federer any more."

Other first-round results:
Feliciano Lopez (Spa) bt Florian Mayer (Ger) 6-3 6-4
Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) bt Marcel Granollers (Spa) 6-2 7-6 (8-6)
Benoit Paire (Fra) bt Gilles Simon (Fra) 6-2 2-6 6-3
Marin Cilic (Cro) bt Mischa Zverev (Ger) 6-2 6-4
Michael Llodra (Fra) bt Nikolay Davydenko (Rus) 6-3 7-6 (7-4)
Viktor Troicki (Ser) bt Thomas Schoorel (Ned) 6-2 7-6 (7-1)
Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) bt Andrey Golubev (Kaz) 6-4 7-5
Jurgen Melzer (Aut) bt Jesse Huta Galung (Ned) 6-4 6-4
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) bt Grigor Dimitro (Bul) 6-4 6-4
Tomas Berdych (Cze) bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spa) 6-1 6-2
Thiemo de Bakker (Ned) bt Philipp Petzschner (Ger) 6-4 0-6 6-1
Jarkko Nieminen (Fin) bt 3-David Ferrer (Spa) 6-3 6-4
Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) beat Lu Yen-Hsun (Tai) 6-4 7-6 (7-5)
Robin Soderling (Swe) bt Robin Haase (Ned) 6-3 6-2
Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) beat Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukr) 7-6 (7-3) 6-3

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