Andy Murray avoids whitewash but crashes out to Novak Djokovic

Andy Murray crashed out of the Monte Carlo Masters today 6-0, 6-4 to world No 3 Novak Djokovic. The Scot had a dreadful start and looked on course for the dreaded 'Double Doughnut' - a 6-0, 6-0 hammering.

But Murray won his first service game of the second set and avoided a whitewash, to huge cheers from the British contingent in the crowd.

That gave the British No1 confidence and he dug in as the score progressed to 5-4 on serve - but two disastrous double faults handed the match to the Serb.

Although clay is not the Scot's favourite surface, he had eased through to the third round with confidence-boosting wins over Feliciano Lopez and Filippo Volandri. Today, though, his inexperience was ruthlessly exploited by Djokovic. Murray's first service game turned out to be the key moment of the set, and he lost it after an epic battle with six deuces. At one point Djokovic applauded a backhand winner by Murray but there was no room for sentiment as his friend Djokovic stormed into a 2-0 lead.

Murray was standing too far behind the baseline and allowing Djokovic to dominate - a mistake that saw the next four games slip away in no time to hand the set to the Serb 6-0.

Meanwhile, normal service was resumed by world No1 Roger Federer, who dismissed local favourite Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-4.

The Swiss star struggled against Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo yesterday and had to come back from 5-1 down in the final set to win in a tie-break. The only scare for Federer today came when he dropped his second service game, but he hit straight back to level the match at 2-2. He broke again for a 5-3 lead when Frenchman Monfils sent a big fore-hand wide. Federer went on to hold serve and secure the first set when Monfils overhit a service return.

Federer broke serve in the third game of the second set and although Monfils saved three break points at 4-2, it was only putting off the inevitable.