Andy Murray admitted he simply wasn’t good enough as he fell to Juan Martin Del Potro in the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
The 25-year-old, who won the gold in the men’s singles and silver in the mixed doubles with Laura Robson at the London 2012 Olympics, fell 6-7, 6-3, 6-1 to the Argentine.
Murray failed to build on taking the first set 7-5 on a tie-breaker making 49 unforced errors as Del Potro won their first encounter for almost four years.
And Murray, who also lost in the second round of the men’s doubles with brother Jamie, conceded that Del Potro was more than deserving of a semi-final calash with Novak Djokovic.
“I thought I hit the ball decently throughout the match, but I played better when I needed to in the first set; then obviously hadn’t managed to break him in the match,” said Murray.
“I had some chances in the second set, didn’t manage to get them. I could’ve served better and returned better – two pretty important parts of the game.
“He played like someone that’s won a lot of matches recently. Especially in the second and third set, when the important moments came he played well.”
Elsewhere, Colin Fleming, who joined both Andy and Jamie Murray on the British team at London 2012, reached the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles with Paul Hanley.
They were denied a place in the semi-final after a 6-3, 4-6, 10-5 defeat to Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares while Laura Robson and Heather Watson both fell in the first round of the women’s singles.
Watson joined forces with Marina Erakovic in the women’s doubles beating Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears 6-3, 6-4 in round one but lost 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 to Hao-Ching Chan and Janette Husarova in round two.
© Sportsbeat 2013