Andy Murray crashed out of the Qatar Open in the last 16 as he fell to a heavy defeat to Roberto Bautista Agut.
The Brit won just three points on serve in the opening set, as he was on the receiving end of a bagel for the first time since 2015. Murray eventually got on the board at the start of the second set, when he held his serve for the first time.
But that was to be the first and last game he won, as Bautista Agut romped to a 6-0 6-1 win in just over an hour.
It’s a disappointing setback for Murray, who started the tournament with an impressive 6-2 6-2 win over Taro Daniel, the Japanese player who knocked him out of the Australian Open last month.
The 34-year-old won in Qatar in 2008 and 2009, but Bautista Agut proved far too good and the Spaniard will face either Dan Evans or Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the quarter-finals.
Murray’s focus will stay on the hard courts before he turns his attention to the grass in a few months, after the Brit revealed he will be skipping the clay-court season.
“Right now I am not planning on playing through the clay,” Murray said.
“The past couple of years, the clay has made issues worse; last year I had some issues at the beginning of the year, the clay didn’t help, so I’ve spoken to my team about that and this year while I feel good and healthy I don’t want to take that risk.
“It’s not that I wouldn’t potentially play on clay in the future. Last year I almost missed Wimbledon, was close to not playing the grass season, I’m not planning on playing the clay. I will still try to compete a bit during that period, I won’t do nothing, that’s my plan just now.
“I had a busy end of last year and the next couple of months I won’t take any risks and hopefully get a good build-up to the grass season.”
