The last two years, Andy Murray went into a funk, after losing in the finals of the Australian Open.  In 2010, he lost to Federer in the finals, then skipped Marseille, lost in Dubai to Tipsarevic.  He did OK in Indian Wells, losing to Soderling in the quarterfinals, but lost early to Mardy Fish in Miami.  Little did Murray expect, at the time, that Mardy Fish would use his defeats of Murray to work his way to the top ten.

Last year, Murray did even worse.  He lost in an opener at Rotterdam to Baghdatis.  He also lost Indian Wells against Donald Young, and then in the opening round to Alex Bogomolov, Jr.  Both players went on to have their best year, though both seem to have faded some in 2012.  That’s what confidence will do for you.

This year, however, Murray had pushed Djokovic to five sets in Australia.  He had reached the finals of Dubai, upsetting Djokovic along the way.  It seemed this year, Murray’s mood was much better, especially with Lendl as coach.

His opponent, Garcia-Lopez, had let his rank slip some, down at 92.  The Spaniard’s never been among the best, even in his own country, as players like Nadal, Ferrer, Verdasco, Almagro, Lopez all played ahead of him.  He had upset Nadal before, but one could always chalk that up to Nadal’s post US Open funk.

This evening, Garcia-Lopez played really solid from the baseline, while Murray’s serve and his groundies were not in stellar form.  It’s not that Murray didn’t have his chances.  In both sets, he had 0-40 opportunities, but couldn’t crack them.  He also made twice as many errors as his opponent, and watched his first serve percentage plummet.  Murray appeared to be spinning his shots side to side, but Garcia-Lopez was not missing, and using his own variety to slice, and hit flatter.  Garcia-Lopez has a one-handed backhand, and it was effective.

Garcia-Lopez opened with a break in the second set, and Murray had to dig deep to avoid a second break but late in the second set, Garcia-Lopez broke a second time, and Murray was unable to mount a challenge to get a break.  Ultimately, Murray found it hard to be aggressive because he was making way too many errors, and so he was involved in long exchanges from the baseline where Garcia-Lopez hit very cleanly without many unforced errors.  Of the top four, Murray is the one that finds it hard to dominate off the ground unless he’s playing someone like Nadal or Djokovic where his mindset is to outhit them with pace, something he doesn’t seem to apply to the average player.

Garcia-Lopez wins 6-4, 6-2.

Earlier in the day, Djokovic, the top seed, had a comfortable win over Golubev in straight sets.  Kevin Anderson didn’t have to hit a ball in a walkover over Philipp Kohlschreiber.  Two Spaniards had upsets.  Andujar upset Florian Mayer in straight sets.  Ramos upset Gasquet in three sets.  Almagro beat Querrey in 3 sets, perhaps showing Querrey is starting to come back.  Giraldo upset Nishikori in straight sets.

Roddick and Berdych both needed 3 sets to reach the next round.  Harrison upset Troicki.  Wawrinka and Simon both needed 3 sets to garner their victories.  Isner beat Portugal’s Frederico Gil in straight sets.  Frenchmen struggled some.  Monaco beat Mahut in three sets.  Ebden beat Benneteau in three sets.  Fish won his match when his opponent, Seppi, retired in the second set.

Tomorrow, the bottom half plays, including Federer and Nadal.  del Potro is also playing tomorrow.