Andy Murray crashes out of French Open in defeat against David Ferrer

Andy Murray lost to David Ferrer in the French Open quarter final©PA

Andy Murray has crashed out of the French Open in defeat at the quarter-final stage.

The Scotsman was up against David Ferrer of Spain in the last eight at Roland Garros, with the winner facing Rafael Nadal.

Ferrer has never lost to Murray on clay and the 30-year-old has an excellent reputation the surface.

Murray said after the defeat on Wednesday: "I thought I played some good tennis tonight. I just didn't convert. I had a lot of chances in the last couple of sets on his serve and I lost a lot of really long games on my serve, which didn't help.

"Against him, he is so solid, so consistent, that if you're not converting your opportunities, it turns into many long games and then the pressure can build on your serve. He obviously broke me a lot of times the last couple of sets. I had chances to break him and didn't convert them like he did."

In the first set world number four Murray lost his serve to the clay court specialist to make it 1-3 on Suzanne Lenglen court.

Ferrer, ranked at number five in the world, lost his serve to bring it back to 4-5, before breaking Murray to take the set in the next game.

Murray made a strong start in the second, breaking Ferrer's serve immediately, but the same problems came to the fore as he hit the net with both his forehand and backhand from the baseline, and the match went back on serve.

Again the players traded breaks of serve before a tie-break separated them, Murray squaring the contest with a 7-3 win.

Rain then interrupted play in Paris ahead of the third set.

The break certainly helped Ferrer more than Murray, and at the end of a very long game at 1-1, the Spaniard broke serve for a fifth time in the match when his opponent netted a backhand.

Murray was grumbling to himself but rediscovered his form and focus to break back for 3-3 with a series of excellent groundstrokes, ending with a thumping forehand winner.

With a certain inevitability, though, once more the 25-year-old could not hold on to his own serve, and in his next service game Ferrer brought up three set points.

Murray saved two with a big forehand and then a good serve, but on the third he blazed a forehand over the baseline to hand Ferrer the set 6-3 and a two sets to one lead.

The Dunblane-born tennis ace lost the final set 6-2, bringing an end to his Roland Garros dreams.

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