Murray’s slump continues, crashes out of Italian Open

Murray limped to another premature exit with flamboyant shot maker Fognini bossing the Scottish top seed around at will and breaking him four times. 

Murray succumbed to the Italian in just over 90 minutes and has major work to do before the start of Roland Garros in less than a fortnight. 

He hasn’t reached the quarter-final of a major event in 2017, with the loss to Fognini his seventh of the season. 

“I’m sure there were a lot of things I could have done better. He obviously started the match extremely well,” said Murray.

“I wasn’t creating enough chances on my own. The only chance I really got was when he was making errors. “I definitely felt a little bit better... But still not close to where I would like to be, obviously.”

Four-time Rome champion Novak Djokovic overcame Britain’s Aljaz Bedene 7-6 (7/2), 6-2 for a place in the third round. The world number two came through a tight opening set by dominating the tiebreaker before finishing off his victory amid a smattering of jeers from the crowd.

The Serb lost to Rafael Nadal in last week’s Madrid semi-finals, but his quick start yesterday was just the tonic for Djokovic, who has never failed to reach the last eight in Rome.