Murray beaten in Barcelona

Andy Murray: Disappointing quarter-final defeat
in Barcelona

Andy Murray has crashed out of the Barcelona Open at the quarter-final stage after slumping to a surprise 6-4 7-6 (7/3) defeat to Milos Raonic.

In what was his first meeting with the big-serving Canadian, Murray struggled to cope with his opponent's power-hitting, losing serve once in each set before being edged out in a decisive tie-breaker.

Raonic, who crushed sixth seed Nicolas Almagro in the previous round, headed into the match having never beaten a top-eight player nor faced Murray on the ATP Tour.

He endured a minor blip when serving for the second set, allowing second seed Murray his first break of the match, before breezing through the tie-break to clinch the biggest win of his fledgling career in one hour 44 minutes.


Rafael Nadal also made it through to the last four thanks to a 6-2 6-2 thrashing of Janko Tipsarevic, his 32nd straight win in the tournament.

The top seed managed five breaks of serve before finishing the one-sided contest with back-to-back aces.

The next man standing in Nadal's way of a seventh title in Barca is his countryman Fernando Verdasco, who progressed in the last match of the day after Kei Nishikori was forced to retire with an abdominal injury when trailing 4-2 in the first set.  (skysports.com)