Andy Murray... lack of consistent play at Indian Wells.Andy Murray... lack of consistent play at Indian Wells.

Andy Murray squandered a 4-1 lead in the third set before losing a tiebreaker to world number 53 Federico Delbonis and exiting the Indian Wells Open third round 6-4 4-6 7-6.

World number two Murray let his commanding lead evaporate on a warm, windy day in California and needed to break the Argentine left-hander in the 12th game just to force the tiebreaker, which Delbonis won 7-3.

Delbonis took advantage of a series of Murray errors to run off the last five points of the decider to end the two hour, 46 minute struggle in Stadium 1.

“Thanks to everybody here for such an amazing match. It was a very intense match , very passionate, I think,” the Argentine said.

Delbonis, who reached the quarter-finals this year in Rio and Sao Paulo, varied his strategy against Murray and took advantage of some weakness in the Scot’s serve.

Murray failed to register an ace and won less than 50 per cent of his second serves.

It was a short appearance in only the second tournament of the year for Murray, who lost in the final of the Australian Open to world number one Novak Djokovic.

Delbonis will meet Frenchman Gael Monfils in the fourth round after the 13th seed dispatched Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1 6-3.

In another match, 12th seed Milos Raonic of Canada advanced to the fourth round 6-3 3-0 when Australian Bernard Tomic retired in the second set.

Tomic had complained about an injured wrist before the match against the hard-serving Raonic, who will meet Czech Tomas Berdych in the fourth round. The sixth seed beat Croatian Borna Coric 6-1 7-6.

Eighth seed Richard Gasquet advanced past Alexandr Dolgopolov 2-6 6-2 6-1. His fourth-round opponent will be Croatian Marin Cilic, who defeated Argentine Leonardo Mayer 6-4 6-3.

Belgian David Goffin defeated Argentine Guido Pella 4-6 6-3 6-2 and will next meet Stan Wawrinka after the Swiss third seed beat Andrey Kuznetsov 6-4 7-6.

Rybarikova test

In the women’s tournament, Swiss seventh seed Belinda Bencic was stunned by Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova while former champion Ana Ivanovic was also sent packing in the third round.

The 97th-ranked Rybarikova, who eliminated 31st seed Daria Gavrilova in her previous match, got by the powerful Bencic 6-4 3-6 6-3 while Czech Karolina Pliskova dumped former Serbian world number one Ivanovic 6-2 6-0 in 49 minutes.

Next up for Pliskova will be Britain’s Johanna Konta, who advanced 6-4 6-1 over Czech Denisa Allertova, who had conquered second-seeded Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber in the previous round.

Rybarikova advanced to another challenging test against US Open runner-up Roberta Vinci.

The ninth-seeded Italian hurried past Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-1 6-3 to book her spot in the fourth round.

Russian Daria Kasatkina defeated Puerto Rican Monica Puig 6-4 3-6 7-6. Kasatkina’s fourth round opponent will be Swiss Timea Bacsinszky.

The 12th seed overcame Canadian player Eugenie Bouchard 6-2 5-7 6-2.

Australian Samantha Stosur advanced past American Christina McHale 6-4 2-6 6-4 and will next meet 13th seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who defeated China’s Zhang Shuai 6-4 6-3.

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