By Bill Scott, dpaRome - Fourth seed Andy Murray suffered a frustrating loss in a break-filled opening match at the Rome Masters on Wednesday, crashing out in the second round to Argentine Juan Monaco 1-6, 6-3, 7-5.
It was Murray's earliest loss since the Beijing Olympics (first round) and ended a run of superlative 2009 form at the Masters level, where he played the Indian Wells final, won Miami and reached the last four in Monte Carlo.
He owns three titles in 2009, one less than Rafael Nadal.
"During the first set, the court was very heavy and very damp," said Murray. "At the end, it was, you know, really dry, quite slippy, and much quicker.
"That might explain why it was a bit of a different standard of tennis played. Maybe when the courts dried out he was able to dictate more of the points.
"I'm not saying the conditions were the reason I lost the match. It was just very different to what it was at the start. I don't mind whether the clay is quicker or slower. They just changed a lot during the match."
Austrian Juergen Melzer produced the day's second upset as he beat seventh seed Nikolay Davydenko, a semi-finalist last week in Barcelona, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5).
Murray's loss in the wake of the his Monte Carlo semi which began what had looked to be an inspired clay-court campaign postpones any hope Murray might have had this week at the Foro Italico of advancing in the rankings on number three Novak Djokovic.
The Serb defending champion is safely into the third round after winning his opener on Tuesday night.
Murray went down under brilliantly sunny skies to contrast with two days of rain this week which put the event behind schedule.
The Scot stands a poor 1-4 at the Foro Italico, where he won his only match in 2008, a victory which came as Juan Del Potro retired with a back injury.
"I'm not going to be too disappointed," said Murray. "I would have liked to have (keep) my run going, but I have had a great eight months. I haven't lost early for a long time.
"But I knew it was going to happen sometime. I have been playing much better this year than I was last year on clay."
Against Monaco, Murray paid the price for a lack of conviction on break points converting only six of 13 while striking 40 unforced errors and 27 winners.
But Monaco, who missed much of 2008 with pneumonia, showed his clay game to perfection in a fightback after going down badly in the opening set.
The Argentine ranked 58th managed to overcome his 52 unforced errors to take the victory and revenge for a hard-court win Murray scored last month in Miami.
Spain's 13th-seeded Tommy Robredo won his second match in as many days after playing Marat Spain over both Monday and Tuesday during rain interruptions, advanced over GermanPhilip Kohlschreiber 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).
Croatian Marin Cilic, the number 15, had to hold off battling Belgian Christophe Rochus to post a 6-0, 5-7, 6-2. Swede Robin Soderling followed up a quick win on Tuesday with another, taking longer but emerging with a 6-1, 6-7 (2-7), 6-1 scoreline over Romanian qualifier Victor Crivoi, who put out James Blake.
In the first round, Richard Gasquet beat fellow Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the ninth seed, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.
Top seed and three-time champion Nadal was facing Italy's Andreas Seppi, while Roger Federer was taking on Ivo Karlovic in later second-round matches.
