British tennis star Andy Murray suffered a second-round loss to Russian professional tennis player Andrey Rublev in a hard-fought encounter at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells on Friday night.
Rublev piled up the errors in the opening set against Murray, who had enjoyed the support of the crowd on Stadium 2.
But Rublev found his range with the forehand to roll through the second set and secure a 7-6(3) 6-1 win. The Russian will meet Czech 32nd seed Jiri Lehecka in the third round.
"He had a lot of chances in the first set, and I was lucky to win. Had I lost it, it would have been really, really tough,” Rublev said.
Meanwhile, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz overcame Italy's Matteo Arnaldi 6-7(5) 6-0 6-1 to kickstart his title defence.
The Spaniard did not drop a set en route to the Indian Wells title a year ago but dumped a backhand into the net to hand the first set to a fired-up Arnaldi under the lights on centre court.
Alcaraz soon found his rhythm, however, playing the powerful and creative tennis that has made him a two-time Grand Slam champion and fan favourite.
"I was nervous in the first set," Alcaraz told reporters.
"That makes me, at some points, move differently or with less energy. But in the second and the third sets it was totally different," he added.
Sixth seed Alexander Zverev and 11th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas both advanced in straight sets, while rising American Ben Shelton came from behind to score a 4-6 6-3 6-4 win over Czech Jakub Mensik in other second round action.
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