Andy Murray falls to Robin Soderling in Indian Wells
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Murray rues deep court mistakes
Andy Murray crashed out of the BNP Paribas quarter-finals after losing to Robin Soderling in Indian Wells.
The sixth-seeded Swede beat Murray 6-1 7-6 (7-4) in one hour and 34 minutes, and will now face Andy Roddick for a place in the final.
The American beat Tommy Robredo while defending champion Rafael Nadal faces Ivan Ljubicic in the other semi-final.
"He played very well to start with and I didn't," Murray said. "I didn't move particularly well."
Although Murray forced four break points in the opening game, the Scot succumbed on his own serve in the next and was broken again with Soderling racing into a 5-0 lead in the first set.
That left Murray with a huge uphill task and despite winning the next game, the Swede closed out the set comfortably.
Thankfully, Murray rallied in the second set and looked to be firing when he saved a match point to force a tie-break.
But Soderling, who looked in command for the bulk of the encounter, sealed the win when Murray hit into the net on his opponent's fourth match point.
"I was hitting the ball really short, and he's obviously got a big game and he was able to dictate all of the points," said world number four Murray.
"So from my side it was poor, but he hit the ball really big from the back of the court and served well when he needed to."
Earlier on Friday, Roddick secured his semi-final place at Indian Wells with a 6-3 7-5 win over Robredo.
The seventh seed took an hour and 17 minutes to see off the challenge of the Spaniard, seeded 18th.
Murray was well beaten by the Swede in Indian Wells
Roddick, appearing in his fifth ATP Tour quarter-final of the year, broke Robredo in the eighth game of the match and took the opening set in 34 minutes.
The second went with serve until the 11th game when the Spaniard was again broken and the American made no mistake in closing out the match.
Roddick, who won his 28th ATP title in Brisbane in January, outplayed Robredo with his all-round power game, firing down six aces.
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