Federer loses in opening round in Dubai

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Roger Federer lost his second straight match, beaten by Andy Murray 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-4 Monday in the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships.

This was Federer's first match since he lost to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semifinals in January and his first opening-round defeat in 3ˆ½ years.

Federer had won in Dubai four times in the last five years. The top-ranked Swiss had not lost in the first round of a tournament since his defeat to Dominik Hrbaty in the Cincinnati Masters in 2004. Last year, Federer dropped his opening match at the Pacific Life Open to Guillermo Canas after getting a bye into the second round.

"He's the best player in the world, there's no question," Murray said. "The most important thing is to believe that you can win the match."

Murray held serve throughout and broke serve in the sixth game of the second set and then again to take a 3-2 lead in the third. The 11th-ranked British player served out the match at love.

"Any time you get to play someone like Roger it is an honor to be on the same court as him," Murray said. "Each time I play him I step my game up and play pretty well, and I played really well today and served great."

This was Murray's second career victory over Federer. He beat him in the second round in Cincinnati in 2006.

Federer took his defeat in stride, saying he felt "rusty" and made too many unforced errors.

"Missing forehands by two or three meters -- it's just not possible," he said. "I gave him the mistakes today."

It is just the second time since 2003 that Federer loses two consecutive matches. After falling to David Nalbandian in the third round at the Paris Masters last November, Federer also lost his first round-robin match against Fernando Gonzalez at the Masters Cup in Shanghai. He went on to win the title.

Also Monday, Fabrice Santoro upset last year's finalist Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-4 for his third win in seven matches against the 12th-ranked Russian. Fourth-ranked David Ferrer advanced, beating Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-0.