Andy Murray's struggles continued with a 6-3, 6-3 loss to lucky loser Borna Coric in the third round of the Madrid Open on Thursday, while defending champion Novak Djokovic made it to the quarterfinals by defeating Spanish veteran Feliciano lopez 6-4, 7-5.
The top-ranked Murray was outplayed by the 20-year-old Croatian to lose his fifth match of the year.
He has won only one tournament this season and hasn't made it past the semifinals in the three clay-court tournaments he has played.
The 59th-ranked Coric became the first lucky loser to reach the quarterfinals in Madrid. He only made it to the main draw after Richard Gasquet withdrew because of a back injury.
Coric will try to win his second tournament this season. He won his first career title in Marrakech, Morocco last month.
Murray, who lost last year's final to Djokovic in Madrid, had 28 unforced errors in a disappointing outing under the closed roof of the center court in Madrid. He was broken three consecutive times in the first set, and once in the second to give Coric a 5-3 lead that the young Croatian converted to close out the match in less than an hour in a half.
Second-ranked Djokovic has also struggled this season but stayed alive in Madrid with the two-set victory over lopez.
The Serbian was in control during his service games and broke lopez once in each set to secure the victory.